


You're Kidding

by VampireRose



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Baby Angels (Supernatural), Baby Balthazar (Supernatural), Baby Castiel (Supernatural), Baby Gabriel (Supernatural), De-Aged Balthazar (Supernatural), De-Aged Castiel (Supernatural), De-Aged Gabriel (Supernatural), Kid Fic, Witch Curses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:42:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26961595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampireRose/pseuds/VampireRose
Summary: When a simple hunt goes wrong, Sam and Dean are left with three toddlers on their hands. These aren't just any toddlers.These are angel toddlers.Takes place between 6.12 and 6.13
Comments: 24
Kudos: 61





	1. Chapter 1

**“OKAY, SO WE’VE** got her position pinned down to this warehouse, right?”

“That is correct,” 

“Positive she won’t move?”

“Absolutely. I have been monitoring her movement patterns for the past three days, like you asked. She always follows the same routine- goes out for morning coffee, stays at a bookstore until lunchtime, eats at a café, then goes back to the warehouse.”

“Do you know the layout of the inside?”

“No, I didn’t want to risk her seeing me or sensing my grace in her workspace.”

“That would give us away and she’s powerful. There’s no telling what she can do, really.”

Sam, Dean, and Castiel were in a motel room, staring at a map tacked to the wall with a star drawn on it. Their current hunt was a witch that had been evading them, but seemed to have settled in a small-ish town in Wisconsin.

“Alright, let’s go over the plan then get to bed,” Sam murmured, playing with the thick marker in his hands. 

“I will test for warding, should she put any up,” Castiel recited. “If she has and I cannot enter, I will tell you and Dean where it is and you two will destroy it. After that-”

“Sam and I go in the front and back doors, Cas, you’ll stand lookout in case something goes wrong until we find her and call you for backup.”

“Remember, this fight could get hairy,” Sam warned. 

“Like you?” Dean joked, earning himself a dark look.

“We have witch-killing bullets and Cas, you have your angel blade, but we still need to be wary. She’s done some pretty powerful stuff-”

“Sam, we get it. We know how to deal with a witch, you can stop mother-henning,” Dean patted his brother on the shoulder. He knew that Sam was nervous about this one. He was too. Cas had to have been, he had been down here helping instead of trying to handle the civil war up in Heaven. Although, he could have just needed a break. Dean didn’t try to understand the angel anymore. He was too busy worrying about Sam and his recently-returned soul.

“Right, right.”

“Alright. Cas, if you wanna go hang out in Heaven for a bit, go ahead, just be back by the time we leave. I’m gonna have another beer then go to bed. Sammy, want any?”

“No, I’m alright.”

“I think I’ll watch her some more,” Castiel murmured, straightening his coat as he quickly glanced through the reports of the injuries and deaths caused by the witch, tacked up on the wall neatly beside the map.

“Suit yourself,” Dean murmured as he opened his beer bottle, raising it to his lips. Sam ran through a check of everything, ensuring that his laptop and phone were plugged in to charge and that his gun was loaded. By the time he finished, Dean was about finished with his beer and Castiel had disappeared with a soft flap of his wings.

“Alright, I’m gonna turn in,” Sam murmured.

“Same. Night, bitch.”

“Jerk.”

~

Sam woke to a shout of “Jesus Christ- Aren’t you dead!?”

“Faked it. Got bored, though, so I’ve been tailing this witch. I noticed you guys were following her so I came to help take her out.”

Hazel eyes opened to see Dean sitting up in bed, gun in hand, though it was laying against the bed. It soon became obvious that Cas had returned- the trench-coated angel was sitting in the chair in the corner of the room, one leg crossed over the other. However, he wasn’t the only angel in the room.

Balthazar had his back to the room, looking over the printout and clippings on the wall. This, however, wasn’t who had spoken in reply to Dean’s shout. 

Sam’s eyes bugged when he saw  _ Gabriel _ standing there, hands in the pockets of his jacket, an easy grin resting on his lips. 

“Okay, am I seeing things or-”

“Yeah, that’s Gabriel standing there,” Dean muttered. “Would have been nice to have some  _ warning _ before waking up to someone I believed to be dead in my face.”

“Aw come on, you two have died and come back, why couldn’t I?”

“It’s not that you faked your death-”

“Which I do  _ not  _ appreciate,” Castiel cut in with a dark look at the archangel.

“-It’s that I woke up to you leaning right in my face. Not cool, dude, seriously. I could have shot you! I almost did!”

“Wouldn’t have done anything to me and you would have wasted one of your witch bullets. Can we get past this, I wanna deal with her and go back into hiding.”

“Dean,” Sam cut his brother off. “Get over it.”

“Right, now that that’s dealt with,” Balthazar turned. “What exactly is the plan here?”

“Me ‘n Sam were gonna go in while Cas stands guard until we find the witch, then he’s gonna come to us and we gank her.”

“Well that won’t work,” Gabriel frowned. “She’s much too crafty for that. You’re going to need more power than that. Good thing me and Balthazar are coming!”

Dean was about to argue, but Sam threw a balled-up sock at him.

“We’ll worry about it later. We need to get going, remember? We wanted to be there before 7, that’s when she leaves.”

“Fine,” Dean sighed. “Give me five minutes to get ready.”

The angels waited patiently as the two humans pulled their boots on and got ready, running through a final check of their weapons before they left. 

“Alright, Cas, is she there?”

“Yes, I feel her presence.” The angel frowned. “She’s also put up some warding, but it’s not against angels. I don’t believe it will be a problem.”

“Alright, good. Let’s go.”

It had been agreed upon that Castiel would still stand guard outside the exit the witch usually left from, should she get past the others, while Gabriel and Balthazar would accompany Sam and Dean.

Dean and Balthazar made their way around the warehouse to the back door, Dean opening it and wincing at the creak until Balthazar silenced it with a flick of his wrist. The two crept in carefully, Balthazar leading Dean as he followed his senses to the witch. Similarly, Gabriel and Sam were moving through the front of the warehouse. Gabriel clutched his blade while Sam held his gun, both cautiously checking each corner for traps. It wouldn’t surprise Sam that there would be any, considering the fact that this was the witch’s more-used path. There were a few, simply hex bags hidden in the walls, but Gabriel sensed them and destroyed them before they could affect Sam. They wouldn’t do much, if anything, to the archangel. They weren’t meant for such a powerful intruder. 

Castiel waited outside, both patiently and impatiently. He knew that with the caution needed in order to move through the warehouse without being caught, it could take some time before he was called, but it itched at his essence that he was the one being left behind.  _ He _ wasn’t the one that had faked his own death. Gabriel and Balthazar both had done it before, yet  _ they _ were the ones getting to go inside, where the action would be.

It did make sense, though. They were the ones who couldn’t necessarily be trusted not to leave when fighting started or when it began to get too risky. Castiel, Sam and Dean had to know, would stay. He always had. Everything he’d done since meeting them was ultimately for their benefit. Even if it was… morally ambiguous.

_ “Cas, come on in. Found her. _ ” Dean’s prayer rang through Castiel’s mind, humming along the edges of his grace, and the angel teleported to his friend’s side. The witch, who was surrounded, had a maniacal grin on her face, which only grew at Cas’ presence. The angel took a second to assess the situation, as he’d not been inside.

Sam was on Dean’s other side, Balthazar next to Castiel and Gabriel next to him. Together, the five formed a semicircle around the witch, whose back was to a table- her worktable- which had multiple hex bags on it. Cas could feel the power humming from the bags and knew that he couldn’t allow Sam or Dean to be hit by one- it definitely would not end well. The humans had their guns drawn and trained on the witch while all three angels had their blades out and ready. It all seemed to depend on the witch’s movement.

She, too, seemed to have been taking stock of the situation she found herself in. She knew she was beat- Someone of her status would be hard-pressed to  _ not _ have heard of the Winchesters and she could sense the power radiating from the angels- so she didn’t even try to beg for her life. However, despite this predicament, a smirk formed on her painted lips, one with the expression of a creature that knew something you didn’t- and found great hilarity at your ignorance.

“Okay, can you stop with that smile-smirk!?” Dean growled. “You look like the damned Cheshire cat.”

“Oh, well,  _ forgive me _ for finding this amusing,” The witch’s voice was surprisingly smooth, like honey.

“What? You think you can escape us?” Sam scoffed.

“Oh, heavens no. I know this is my end. “But-” Gabriel saw the witch’s hand creeping ever so slightly towards the hex bags on the table. He opened his mouth to say something. “I can leave you with more than a little trouble.”

Faster than she should have been capable of moving, the witch scooped up two hex bags and threw them at the angel’s feet. One hit Castiel’s leg and both burst into clouds of gray smoke. Coughing from the gas as it seemed to catch in his vessel’s lungs, Castiel quickly sent Sam and Dean back to the motel before the hex bags could affect them. Then, as one, the three angels stabbed their blades through the witch- One through her stomach, one through her through, and one directly in her chest. She let out a strangely-pitched squeal, though that could have been due to Castiel’s ears ringing. Were they supposed to do that?

The mission completed, the angels flew back to the motel, wings beating away the remnants of the smoke. 

Castiel wasn’t the only one that had felt the effects of the smoke- Balthazar was coughing too and Gabriel was clearing his throat. After a few minutes, though, they seemed to be okay. 

“So?” Dean asked.

“She’s dead,” Gabriel told him.

“I doubt that was a mere smoke bomb,” Castiel murmured. 

“Yeah, but it probably wasn’t meant for us. We  _ are _ angels.”

“That’s… Alarmingly arrogant,” Sam told Balthazar, who shrugged as he snapped a glass of whiskey into existence.

“It’s true though.”

“Whatever, Sam, we need to get packing.” Dean grunted as he threw clothes into his bag.

“Aw, come on!” Gabriel protested. “Stay a bit, relax. Sammy just got his soul back and you finished a hunt with zero casualties. Celebrate, you can leave in the morning. You have to find a new hunt anyway, so just let your hair down a bit.”

“But, Gabriel, neither of them puts their hair up-”

“It’s a saying, Cassie. Just roll with it.”

After weighing the decision in his mind, Dean sighed. “Fine. We’ll pack in the morning.”

Gabriel grinned, satisfied as he snapped a few bottles of alcohol into the room.

“Good. I think the three of us’ll stick around, maybe snooze a bit.”

“Sorry?”

“Angels can put themselves into a restful state in order to bring their grace levels up faster,” Balthazar explained as Castiel frowned.

“I am feeling a bit more drained than is usual for the amount of grace I used. Dean, Sam, do you mind if we stayed?”

“I’m fine with it,” Sam shrugged. 

“You’re not sharing the beds. If you wanna stay, you’re either sleeping on the floor or popping in some cots.”

“Fine by me,” Gabriel shrugged as he set his drink down and rolled underneath one of the beds. “I’m good. Cozy.”

Sam peeked under and found that Gabriel had snapped in some pillows and blankets. It did look comfy. The archangel waved at the man. 

“You guys go to sleep now, it’s late.”

Sure enough, it was past midnight.

“How is it already so late?” Sam asked with a frown. 

“Eh, time flies on hunts,” Dean waved his brother’s confusion away.

Wishes of good nights rang around the room as Castiel and Balthazar summoned cots and Sam and Dean got ready for bed. Dean took a moment to study Castiel’s face at one point. He wore a small smile as he talked to Balthazar. The smile gave him a relaxed look, seemed to re-energize him. He usually looked so tired, so worn. It softened the harshness of some of the lines etched into his face.

Dean’s last thought as the light switched off and he drifted to sleep was that he thought Castiel looked more youthful. That was silly, though, right? 

Must have been the lighting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who just started ANOTHER Supernatural fic, even though they need to finish the ones they've got in progress? This gal!
> 
> Y'all, I'm sorry, but I just love the baby angels/ de-aged angels concept and even though I've got one fic, I wanted to take a different spin on this one. Maybe partly to have a not-traumatized Castiel and Gabriel. And have cute bath scenes.
> 
> This one has been bugging me for a couple days and even though I have another fic (I know, groan) in my head, it's been there for months and we're just not gonna release that monster quite yet. I've decided to finish Didn't Expect This (The only fic with a planned ending hehe) before I start that.


	2. Chapter 2

**DEAN WHEEZED AS** a weight thumped against his chest, harshly bringing him to wakefulness. 

“Dean! Dean, wake up!” A child’s voice rang out through the room and Sam twitched as he too woke up. Dean flicked on the light and froze when he came into eye contact with a small tawny-haired child, about ten years old.

“Um, who are you?” Dean as his hand inched under the pillow to wrap around his gun. He couldn’t tell if this was a monster or not, but if it wasn’t, he wasn’t going to risk traumatizing a kid by pointing a gun at him.

Likewise, he wasn’t going to risk dying without a fight.

The child huffed. “Come on, Dean, leave the gun. It’s me.”

“Who?” Sam asked. Dean could see that his hand was similarly hidden under his pillow. Smart boy, Sam.

“ _ Me _ . Gabriel.”

“Wait, wait, wait.  _ Gabriel _ !?”

“Uh huh,” The child slid off of Dean and the bed, onto the floor. He wore a t-shirt and jacket that were way too big on him, his jeans falling right off and puddling up at his feet. “Those hex bags the witch threw at us must have been age-regression spells. I haven’t seen one in ages, especially not one strong enough to affect angels. She must have done something to our grace too, cause mine’s muted. I can hardly keep my wings on the other plane.”

“Sorry-  _ What _ ?” Sam and Dean were having similar reactions, both sitting up in bed, hands no longer underneath the pillows. 

The child- Gabriel huffed again. “We usually keep our wings hidden on another plane. It’s not too difficult, one of the first things an angel learns when being taught how to take a vessel. It doesn’t take much grace, but if your grace is muted…”

“...Then you won’t be able to do it.” Sam finished. Gabriel nodded, a frown crossing his youthful features. 

“If I’m this badly affected- And the spell’s still working on me, I can feel it- Then Balthazar and Cas..” A fearful look took over his face. “How bad do you think they’ll be affected by this? Especially Cas, he got a strong blast of it. The hex bag hit his leg and he started breathing the smoke in first.”

Sam was the first to move, getting up off his bed and heading to the cot Castiel had been on. The angel himself was missing, but his clothes were still there- albeit quite rumpled. Sam took a deep breath and moved the trench coat.

There laid a dark-haired child that rolled over, blinking bright blue eyes open. “Sam?” He asked softly “Wha’s goin- What’s wrong with my voice.”

‘What’s wrong’ indeed, as the angel’s usually gruff voice was now the higher tones of a toddler’s. Unfortunately, this also meant that his speech was affected with the toddler-like slurs and syllable drops. As Cas sat up, it became evident that he’d been pushed all the way to a toddler- about 3 or so, Dean thought. The white dress shirt he’d gone to sleep in was bunched around him, the shoulders so broad that the seam fell down halfway to his elbows. Strangely, though, the back bunched up oddly. His tie was loose around his neck, the knot falling almost to where his belly button might be. 

His brow crinkled as he looked at himself. “What happ’ned?”

“We think those hex bags had an age-regression spell,” Gabriel told him as he walked over to Balthazar’s cot after stepping out of the too-big jeans. “I think it’s just physical, at least for now. I hope it doesn’t affect us mentally or emotionally, Balthazar was a fussy baby.”

“Who you callin’ a baby- What the hell!?” Balthazar’s voice started sleepily but turned abruptly awake and frightened the moment he noticed something was wrong. He quickly sat up, emerging from the clothing swamping him. “What’s goin’ on?”

“Age-regression spell,” Gabriel repeated. “That’s what I’m thinking, must have had something to do with that smoke. Come over to Castiel’s cot, I wanna test something.”

Balthazar slithered off of his cot, cursing as he got caught in the leg of his too-big pants and got stuck. He wriggled out of the pants, much like Gabriel had, and followed, dressed only in his shirt and jacket. Gabriel helped him onto the cot next to Castiel and crawled up, pulling the trench coat over his brothers’ laps and pulling Bathazar’s shirt off.

“Woah! Warning!” Dean protested as the oversize shirt was whipped off. 

“You’ve seen naked people before,” Gabriel answered darkly as Balthazar twisted to look over his shoulder. Castiel leaned back to see and his face fell.

“Our grace is being depleted thanks to the spell,” Gabriel muttered as Balthazar and Castiel stared at his wings. “We don’t have the mojo to fix our vessels and you guys don’t seem to have enough to hide your wings.” He moved over so he was unbuttoning Cas’ shirt. He slipped it down past his shoulders to reveal another set of wings and sighed.

It wasn’t that the wings were ugly- they were actually quite beautiful. Castiel’s were jet-black, seeming to eat up every piece of light that struck the feathers. Balthazar’s, by contrast, were a dark teal that faded to a rich blue.

“You look like a peacock,” Dean murmured. Sam gave him a look.

“Father needed t’ test the color scheme ‘fore he made a whole species,” Balthazar replied in a ‘duh’ voice. “ _ I _ think the birds look nice. Could do without th’ spots, but-” He shrugged. “-Ev’rything has a design flaw.”

“Hey- Dean? Can we talk outside?” Sam asked, jerking his head to the door. Dean nodded and stood.

“Wait, wait, where’re you goin’?” Gabriel scrambled off the cot and chased after the two, tugging on Dean’s pant leg. His eyes were wide with some emotion Dean couldn’t place.

“We’re just gonna be outside,” Sam replied, motioning towards the door. “Just over by the car. I need to talk to Dean for a second.”

“You c’n talk in here,” Cas protested. “We’re still th’ same, just....”

“Guys, you’re  _ toddlers _ . Not you Gabriel, but you said that you could still feel the spell and, chances are, you’re gonna end up as a toddler too. There are some things that don’t need to be said in front of toddlers-”

“We’re  _ angels _ !” Balthazar cried, jolting to his feet and promptly toppling as the cot shifted and his wings threw him off balance. “Full-grown! Not  _ babies _ !”

“Yeah!” Gabriel agreed. Cas nodded, an angry pout forming on his lips.

“Guys, just… Give us a moment.”

Sam grabbed both his and Dean’s keys to the room, which were sitting on the table next to the door. The two Winchesters left the room and Sam locked it.

“So they can’t run out,” He explained at his brother’s look.

“Alright. So, what do you want to talk about?”

“We have to keep them with us,” Sam sighed.

“What?”

“Well, they wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for us-”

“How so? We didn’t force them to get involved.”

“If we hadn’t been tracking the witch, Cas wouldn’t have joined us. If we hadn’t found her, Gabriel and Balthazar wouldn’t have insisted on helping. This is pretty much our fault and besides, it’s not like we can just leave them. Two of them have  _ wings _ and I’m sure all three will before long.”

“How would we even take care of three kids? We don’t have a house or anything for them. They’d be living in motel rooms and the backseat of Baby.”

Sam was silent for a bit. “Kind of surprised you’re not arguing about taking them with us.”

“Well, we can’t do the opposite. We can’t drop them at some orphanage. Besides the fact that they’d smite us to ashes if we did that, you said it. They have  _ wings _ . They’d probably be taken to some government facility and treated like lab experiments and I‘m not gonna let that happen, especially not to Cas. So that means that we have to take care of them, at least until we figure out some way to undo the spell.”

“But how? We can’t exactly leave them in the car while we do interviews and finish cases, and we can’t leave them in motel rooms. We don’t know how young they’re gonna get.”

Dean sighed. “I dunno, we’ll figure something out. But first, though, we need to get them clothes. They can’t go around in their old clothes, those are way too big and they’ll probably end up getting hurt. But in order to go to the store, we’ll need to cover their wings.”

“Uh, maybe we can use their jackets? Put Cas’ coat on Gabriel since he’s biggest, have Balthazar keep his jacket, then give Cas Gabriel’s jacket. They’re so big now that they’ll cover their wings easily if we can zip or button them up.”

“That’ll have to work. Should we tell them the plan then get going to some store? Maybe a Walmart? They have everything.”

“Sounds good. I wouldn’t mention the government lab experiments thing, though.”

At an agreement, the two made their way back to the motel room. They unlocked the door and walked in to find the three angels huddled together on the cot, looking miserable and scared. Their faces brightened, however, when the Winchesters walked back in.

“Alright, we have a plan now,” Sam told them, kneeling in front of the cot. The three de-aged angels stared at him expectantly. “So, you guys are gonna stay with us. We’re gonna work to try to figure out a way to break this curse but while we do that, we need to get you stuff, like clothes that fit. So what we’re gonna do, is we’re gonna find a Walmart. We’re gonna have to take you guys inside, so we’ll have to hide your wings. Gabriel, are you still able to do that?”

“Yeah, but it’s getting harder.”

“Okay, that’s fine,” Gabriel  _ was _ looking even younger than when the two had walked out. It was like he’d lost another year, which he probably had. Sam wasn’t sure, but he thought that Balthazar and Cas may have gotten younger as well. He just hoped it wouldn’t continue. “So we’re gonna have Gabriel put on Cas’ coat and Cas is gonna put on Gabriel’s jacket.”

“Bu’ they’re so big,” Cas mumbled distractedly, grabbing at his bare foot. “We’ll never fit.”

“We know, but it’s the best we’ve got. We’ll just bundle you up and be glad it’s still chilly here. It’ll look weird, but you guys won’t be walking. We’ll stick you in the cart so you don’t risk falling.”

“Wha’ ‘bout clothes un’er the jackets?” Balthazar asked, frowned at the way his toddler voice dropped syllables. “What about clothes under the jackets?” He repeated, slowly and concentrated.

Sam glanced at Dean, who shrugged. “We can try to stick you guys in t-shirts, but they’ll be too big and pretty useless.

“ _ Unless _ ,” An idea struck Sam. “We have needles and thread. We can cut holes in the backs for their wings, since we’ll have to do that with normal clothes anyway so they’re comfortable, and we can try to stitch the shirts to fit them better. That way the jackets won’t irritate their skin.”

“Works, I guess,” Dean replied, searching through his bag and pulling out three t-shirts. “Not sure where the sewing supplies went, though.”

“Should be in the trunk. Right next to the machetes?”

“I’ll go check.” Dean closed the door behind him and Sam turned back to the angels. 

“Alright, so how much grace do you think you guys still have?”

“Not much,” Gabriel answered first. “I can still hide my wings, but it takes a lot of concentration.”

“You can stop trying to hide them,” Sam suggested. “Since we have a plan. It might help you conserve what you have left.”

Gabriel sighed and wiggled out of his shirt, the air behind his back shimmering. A hazy shape began to form, becoming more solid as time passed. Eventually, a pair of fluffy light wings. Sam would have said that they were gold, but they were too pale. They were too dark to be cream-colored, so that didn’t work either. 

“Alright, what about you two?”

“Well, obviously not enough to hide our wings,” Balthazar grumbled, though Sam could tell he was working hard to not sound any more like a toddler than he already did. 

“I can har’ly feel mine,” Cas, on the other hand, didn’t seem to care about dropping syllables or random letters in his speech. “I mean, jus’ enough to know ‘m not human, but not enough to do ‘nything.”

Just then, Dean came back with sewing supplies.

“Alright, I’ll work on a shirt for Cas first. Dean, can you do one for Balthazar? Gabriel, we’ll do you last since you’re still getting smaller.”

“We’re all still gettin’ smaller,” Balthazar muttered. Sam frowned and surveyed their little faces. Sure enough, Castiel and Balthazar were even younger than before.

“Well, we’re gonna go with what we've got,” Dean replied as he handed Sam a shirt and some safety pins. The taller man had Castiel get off the cot, the first time he’d stood all day, and held the shirt up to him, first using his knife to cut off the extra length so the shirt would come to mid-thigh on the angel, since they didn’t currently have underwear or pants. 

The room was mostly quiet as the brothers altered three t-shirts for three baby angels. Once the first one, Castiel’s, was finished, Sam wiggled the angel into it, carefully guiding his wings through cut slits. The shirt fit fairly well, considering it had once been Dean’s, and Sam grabbed Gabriel’s coat, slinging it over Cas and helping his little arms through the sleeves as he zipped it up. The jacket was, unsurprisingly, far too big, some of the material puddling on the ground. Sam soon released Cas from the confines of the jacket and allowed him to return to the cot.

Sam was working on Gabriel’s shirt when Cas suddenly spoke up.

“I don’ feel the spell ‘nymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’z not de-agin’ me ‘nymore,” Cas’s words were extremely slurred and he frowned, mouth twisting. “It… I think this is as small as it will make me.” He took on the same concentrated tone Balthazar had when he was speaking.

“You know you guys can just talk, right? If we don’t understand, we’ll ask you to repeat it.” Dean spoke up as he tucked away his needle and thread. “Your speech is really not one of our biggest issues right now.”

“It’s d’meaning!” Balthazar protested. “We’re age-old angels, we shou’n’t be soundin’ like human toddlers! We’re better ‘n ‘at! We’re older ‘n humanity ‘n Gabr’el’s older ‘n creation! We  _ aren’t _ babies!” As he got more worked up, his speech patterns fell more and more into a typical toddler’s until he sat down onto the cot with a huff, pouting, wings shivering to show his rage at the situation. “I’z not  _ fair _ !” Then he did the most humiliating thing he felt he could have done at that moment.

He began to cry.

To be fair, he’d tried to hold it back. He tried to ignore the lump in his throat choking his voice. He tried to hold back the hot tears burning at his eyes. He’d even tried to stop his chin from trembling, but none of it worked. He’d begun to sniffle and before he knew it, those burning tears were carving tracks down his chubby baby cheeks.

Sam scooped the crying angel into his arms, pressing him against his chest. He had no idea if he was doing it right, but Dean, who had more experience with children, wasn’t making any move to help. He was just stunned. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, Sam combed his fingers through Balthazar’s blond hair as the angel squirmed and tried to get away.

“L-le-me go-,” He whined, his voice broken by the uneven breaths that came with his tears. 

“It’s okay to be upset, Balthazar,” Sam tried to soothe the angel. “This is all really confusing and scary-”

“Don’ ta-lk to me like I’m some  _ baby _ !” The angel wailed, thrashing in Sam’s arms. “‘M  _ not _ ! ‘M ‘n  _ adult _ full-grown! I’ve smi-ted more pe-ople ‘n you’ll ever see ‘n your who-le  _ life _ !”

“I know you have, but that was when you had your grace. Now, you’re small and you don’t have your grace. Everything’s different now and-” Balthazar’s crying got harder. “That was the wrong thing to say.”

“Damn ri-ight!” The angel sobbed, pounding a small fist against Sam’s chest. “I wan-na go back t’  _ nor-mal _ !”

“I know, we’re gonna fix this, I swear,” Sam cast a desperate look at Dean, who simply shrugged. It had been so long since he’d done anything with a baby… “But right now, it’s okay for you to cry and be upset because that’s what toddlers do. We don’t know right now if the effects of the spell were just physical or if they messed with your mentalities or emotional-”

“Obv’usly it  _ has _ !” Balthazar yelled. “ ‘M  _ cry-in’ _ !”

“Okay, okay,” Sam breathed, getting to his feet and he carefully cradled Balthazar to his chest. Dean noticed Cas and Gabriel watching with confused and scared expressions. He also noticed tears bubbling up in Cas’ eyes and quickly scooched to the cot.

“Hey, Cas,” He whispered. “What’s wrong?”

“Bal- Baf-” Cas huffed as he tried to say his brother’s name. Unfortunately, thanks to the spell, his unformed palate could no longer form the words, no matter how hard he tried. “He’s… I don’...” The angel trailed off unhappily, unable to find the words to describe what he was feeling. He wasn’t used to feeling. He glanced helplessly up at Dean, lower lip trembling as tears began to escape his eyes. “I don’ know!” His voice quickly escalated into a wail as the evident emotional effects of the spell began to take shape in the youngest-looking angel. “Don’ wanna cry!”

Dean pulled the angel into his arms as Sam turned to face him, trying to understand what was going on as he rocked Balthazar in an attempt to calm the little blond. Dean just shook his head as he patted Castiel’s back, feeling the angel shaking in his arms.

“Can’ speak ri’ ‘n I don’ get it!”

“What don’t you get?” Dean asked, hoping he might get a straight answer out of Cas. 

“Emo- Mo- Fee’n’s!” The angels pummeled his little fists again Dean as his frustration about the situation grew. 

“You don’t understand emotions?"

“Yehes!” Cas wailed, tears cascading down his little cheeks.

“That’s okay, it’s okay. You’re not used to feeling and now you’re feeling everything huh?”

Sniffling, Cas nodded.

“That’s okay, just let it all out. You can cry as much as you need, you’ll feel better once you’re done, okay?”

“Bu’ don’ wanna.”

“I know, I know. But you’re already started, why stop now?”

Cas simply let out a low whine as he buried his face in Dean’s shirt, shoulders and wings shaking. Dean looked up to meet Gabriel’s frightened, wide-eyed gaze.

“Please don’t you start too,” He pleaded.

“I’ll try,” Gabriel whispered. “Can’t promise anything, but… I’ll try.” The angel pulled his knees to his chest, holding Castiel’s coat around his wings and shoulders. He could feel a lump forming in his throat but focused on keeping his breathing steady, determined not to dissolve into tears like his brothers. The Winchesters needed someone to stay strong, and it obviously wasn’t going to be Castiel or Balthazar.

Fifteen minutes later and Dean realized he’d forgotten how long kids could carry on. Balthazar was still shrieking and battering his fists ineffectively against Sam while Cas was curled in Dean’s arms, sobbing as he’d finally stopped resisting his inhibitions about acting like a toddler. He’d felt very similarly to Balthazar about the situation. Dean glanced at Gabriel and his heart dropped when he saw the third angel with wet tracks running down his face.

“Gabriel?”

The child shook his head. “It’s reactive. I… I think.” He wiped the wetness away with the heels of his hands, looking away guiltily as more tears fell from his eyes. “I’m tryin’ to stop, I swear. It’s just-”

“You’re scared too, and none of this is helping,” Dean finished. “That’s okay, come here.” He held an arm out and the archangel crawled over him as he moved Cas to one side, settling Gabriel on his leg and pressing the child to his side with his free arm. A small hand roped around his stomach and anchored somewhere around his hip, shirt crinkled in a fist. Dean could feel Gabriel shivering as he tried to control his hitching breaths.

“Hey, as soon as Cas calms down, we’re gonna throw a jacket on you and step outside, okay?” He whispered to the archangel, who shifted to look up at him. “It’ll get you away for a few seconds. We’ll just be outside the door, maybe sitting inside Baby. That sound alright?” The de-aged angel nodded and Dean wiped his cheek with his thumb. “Good. It hopefully won’t be too long. Kids his age- size can only cry so long before they cry themselves to sleep.”

“Mkay,” Gabriel rested his head against Dean’s ribs, hunched over on himself. He stared miserably at the wall past the cot. Why did  _ he _ have to get hit by the spell? If he’d not been hit, then he could take care of Cas and Balthazar. He raised them once before, he could do it again. But now… Now he was a little kid too and getting littler, and he was useless-

“Hey, Gabe, what’re you thinking?” Dean shook the young archangel, who simply shook his head. “Well, you stop thinkin’ it, you hear? You’re getting yourself all worked up.”

Gabriel lifted a hand to his cheek surprised to find it wet again. He rubbed his face against Dean’s shirt, trying to settle down.

“ ‘M sorry,” He mumbled. “Di’n’t mean to.”

“It’s okay, kiddo, really. Everything’s gonna be hitting you different now that you actually… Feel emotions, so don’t be embarrassed by crying, especially not at first. It’s a lot to get used to.”

“You’re okay with it?”

“Of course,” Dean reassured. “Why else do you think me and Sam are trying to help you calm down instead of telling you that crying solves nothing?”

Gabriel didn’t answer, resting his head against Dean.

On the other side of the room, Sam was having very little luck with Balthazar. The angel had stopped saying anything coherent a while ago, his babbling indecipherable and shattered through his sobs. Sam was reduced to sitting on the bed and rocking him, shushing him and hoping he’d stop soon. Blessedly, he eventually fell asleep. This seemed to be about the same time Cas fell asleep, because Gabriel was helping drag blankets out from under the bed to let Cas snuggle up to something comfy.

“Can you do that for Bathazar?” He called softly. Gabriel looked up and nodded, diving back under the bed and pushing out the remaining bedding. Dean set Cas in the blanket nest and set to making another.

“I’m gonna take Gabriel to sit outside for a few minutes,” Dean told his brother as he set Balthazar down. “He was pretty shaken up by all of the crying and he needs some air. 

“Go for it,” Sam replied. “When he’s okay, I think we should get going to the store.”

“Yeah, the sooner the better,” Dean sighed as he stared at the sleeping babies then stood up. He slung Gabriel’s old jacket around the angel’s shoulders and led him outside, taking a seat on the pavement just outside the door. After a couple second’s hesitation, Gabriel crawled into his lap.

“So, since you’re the only one that has semi-functioning words, how’re you taking all this?”

Gabriel sighed. “Not… I’m really not sure. I can still feel the curse working on me and I don’t… I don’t know how young it’s gonna make me. What if I end up even younger than Cas? I wouldn’t be able to control my emotions, there’s a chance I might end up unable to walk. I’d be useless and I’m not supposed to be useless. I  _ raised _ half of Heaven’s angels, I can’t be… Helpless... vulnerable!”

“Hey,” Dean shook the archangel slightly to get his attention before he set himself off into a crying fit. He  _ really _ couldn’t handle a third one of those right now. “If you end up younger than Cas, oh well. If you end up sittin’ in diapers, pooping and crying all day,  _ oh well _ . We’ll figure it out. You said you raised half of the angels?” Gabriel nodded. “Well, there’re a shit-ton of angels. I think you did plenty. You can take a break, let yourself be cared for. Act your age, your- physical age during this and we’ll make sure you’re just fine. Me and Sam will protect you, okay? We won’t let you guys get hurt.”

“But it’s not your responsibility to keep us from getting hurt,” Gabriel protested. “Cas is supposed to be your guardian, but he can’t do that if he’s stuck as a baby. I’m an  _ archangel _ and what am I now? A-” He lifted his arms and surveyed himself. “I think around an 8 year-old? And I’m not done going back in time! It’s just  _ wrong _ , especially since I came into being as a teenager. I have never been a child.”

“Well, it’s time for you to make up for lost time,” Dean told the archangel. “Until we get this figured out, you’re a kid, simple as that. Take advantage of it, you won’t usually have me and Sam catering to your every need. Especially since it seems like the other two might need more help than we thought.”

“But how’re you gonna keep us with you?” Gabriel asked. “Humans don’t like it when kids are left in a car.”

“We’re working on it,” Dean told him. “Personally, I’m thinking we might take a break from hunting until we get a better plan.”

Gabriel nodded and shifted in Dean’s lap, resting his head against the man’s torso. He didn’t like this at all. He was supposed to be an archangel- fierce, absolute. Heaven’s most terrifying weapon. Now he was this- This child. Why did this have to happen? Why was it an age-regression spell, of all things, in those stupid hex bags? 

“Hey, what’re you thinking?” Dean broke into Gabriel’s thoughts. “What’d I lose you to?”

“Just…” Gabriel frowned when his voice was choked. He wasn’t going to cry  _ again _ ! It was bad enough he’d cried the first time, after he’d told Dean he wouldn’t. “Right now, I have my normal mind, I’m just small and apparently have a child’s control over their emotions.”

“I think you’re a bit better than the average 8 year-old, considering.”

“Well thanks. Anyway, If I still have my mind, what about Cas and Balfazar?” Dean opted to ignore the error in Gabriel’s pronunciation, though it did send a worm of worry through him. He was obviously still de-aging. “They’re babies now and they obv’usly don’t have as much control over their own emotions as they would as adults. If they have all their memories, what’s to say they won’t break down in hysterics as they think about what they’ve done in their past or what they’ve lost in this?”

“We’ll deal with that when it comes. It seemed like, despite the hysterics, they were pretty much all there, just whacked by toddler feelings. If we can get them to ignore their speech issues, we can try to figure out what they remember and how they’re doing mentally. If you guys are regressing mentally too, not just physically and emotionally, that’ll be tough. I’m not prepared to deal with overly-emotional angels, much less overly-emotional, scared, toddler-brained angels.”

“I’ll tell you if I start feeling… Diff’rent. Right now, I think I’m fine, but that doesn’t say anything for Cas or Balfazar.”

“Alright, that’ll help.”

“I just don’t understand, haven’t seen an age-regression spell in ages. Why’d she just have it lying around? Why’d it have to be  _ her  _ and how come she was able to mess with our grace while she was at it? It-”

“Hey, Gabriel,” Dean shook the archangel again, interrupting him in an attempt to get him to calm down. “You’re getting worked up again.”

“I’m sorry, I-” Gabriel cut himself off at the choked sound in his voice. “Why am I almost crying  _ again _ !? I’m not a toddler, I shouldn’t be doing this so much! This is so ridiculous!” Despite his best attempts to hold them back, a few tears slipped past his lashes and he angrily wiped them away, his frustration at the returning tears only creating more. “I swear, I’m not Cas or Balfazar! I’ve not gone as young as them, I shouldn’t be crying so much! That’s a baby thing-”

“Gabriel, stop. Stop fighting it.” The archangel stared at him in disbelief and opened his mouth to say something. “Balthazar and Cas did, and they cried more cause they got so upset over crying, and look at them now. They wore themselves out. You’re crying, oh well. It happens. If you fight it and get upset about crying, then you’ll only cry more. It looks like the three of you are angry criers. Honestly, I’m not surprised that you guys are crying so much.”

“Why not?” Gabriel’s voice was small and pathetic as he sniffed. It seemed that he was taking Dean’s advice and stopped fighting the tears, letting them roll down his cheeks. 

“Well, think about it. All of a sudden, your adult minds are pushed into baby bodies with baby emotions. Considering the fact that you’ve never really felt emotion before, not like this, it’s all hitting you now. And since you’re not used to it, you’re reacting like you were feeling a lot more. Besides the fact that this is a pretty scary situation, nobody knows how far this spell is gonna go. First it took away your physical age, then it ripped away your emotional maturity, who knows what’s next? Could you guys end up regressing all the way, lose the majority of your adult memories and end up as normal kids with wings? Maybe you guys stay as you are, adult minds understanding everything but baby emotions taking you on a wild ride you can’t control? We don’t know. All we know is that me and Sam are going to take care of you guys, through whatever happens, until we get this fixed. Okay?”

“Okay,” Gabriel mumbled. “Okay.”

“Are you good now? Can we go inside and see how the others are doing?”

Gabriel nodded and Dean stood up. To the archangel’s surprise, he wasn’t let back down and was instead picked up to be carried.

“Put me down!” He protested. “I’m not  _ that _ small!”

“You aren’t wearing shoes. You’re gonna have to be carried across a store parking lot at some point, might as well get used to it now.”

Gabriel pouted but stopped struggling, instead holding on to Dean so he didn’t feel like he might fall. He was already  _ so _ done with this.

“We all good now?” Sam asked. He was sitting next to the cot, combing through the sleeping angels’ hair with his fingers. 

“All good,” Dean replied. Gabriel squirmed. 

“Can you put me down now?”

Dean obliged, setting the archangel down. He tried to go to the cot, but ended up tripping over the hem of his jacket, which he’d forgotten to take off. He got up, Dean thought he heard a small whimper, and wiggled out of the jacket, crawling up the cot to see his brothers. While he did that, Dean motioned for Sam to come closer.

“He’s still de-aging,” He whispered. “He’s getting to that age where they can’t say words right. He flubbed Balthazar’s name.”

“How much younger do you think he’ll get?”

“No idea. He’s worried he’ll get younger than Cas and end up being a burden.”

“I think Balfazar’s stopped de-aging too. The curse doesn’t feel like it’s taking effect on him anymore, it’s just there and holding his grace and age down.”

“How can you tell?” Sam asked.

“I’m an archangel, I can do stuff even wif my grace messed up. Except speak right, apparently.”

“I wasn’t gonna point it out,” Dean murmured. “It’s gotta have something to do with your de-aging. Little kids don’t speak right, you’ll- they drop syllables, mess up their letters. It’s just how it works. Like how Cas can’t even  _ say _ Balthazar right now. I’m willing to bet Balthazar can’t either. How young is he right now, anyway?” 

He got up to peer at the sleeping angels. They looked about the same age, Balthazar a bit older.

“Probably around 2 or 3,” Sam estimated, coming over to Dean’s side. “Are we sure they’re done getting smaller?”

“For now,”

“Well, whatever happens, I think it’ll affect Castiel most.” Gabriel cut in. “He was hit by the hex bag and breathed in the most, I think. He started coughing first.”

“Alright, well, let’s get going to the store. If we get in the car while they’re still asleep, we can get them set up alright.” Dean decided. “Gabriel, will you sit in the back with them and make sure they don’t start freaking out again when they wake up?” 

“Kay.”

“Alright.” Dean stood up and picked Castiel up first, making sure he was bundled securely in the blankets he’d been resting in. He then reached for Gabriel, who backed away. “Come on, I’m not letting you walk across the parking lot barefoot. There could be glass or rocks and that won’t feel good.”

Gabriel sighed and stopped moving, allowing Dean to pick him up. He clung to the man’s t-shirt and they were almost out the door when Sam’s call made Dean pause.

“Jacket,” The man reminded, pushing Gabriel’s jacket over his wings and shoulders. The archangel helped get his arms through the sleeves and Sam worked at pushing them up until his small hands reemerged.

Dean took Gabriel and Castiel to the Impala, followed closely by Sam with Balthazar.

“We’re going to have to leave you three here while we get the room cleaned up, okay?”

“I can help!”

“Absolutely not, we aren’t leaving Cas and Balthazar alone. You need to look after them, okay? Can you do that?” Determination set in Gabriel’s face and he nodded, taking a seat next to his sleep brothers. Sam and Dean closed the door and went back to the room, ripping down the map and any incriminating evidence that would indicate the reason for their presence. After pushing the scraps into a bag to burn later and packing their bags up, they left. Sam tossed his things in the trunk and left to check out and return the keys while Dean pulled around to the front of the motel.

Sam got in and Dean pulled out of the parking lot, having his brother look up the nearest Walmart. Gabriel sat in the back with his brothers, whimpering as a thought struck him and, in his newly emotional state, he couldn’t hold back a frightened sound.

“What is it, Gabriel?” Sam asked, turning to look at the child.

“Nothing, just… What if we can’t fix this? What if we never go back to normal?”

“Well, if you just have to grow up again, you’ll grow up again,” Dean answered. “And if you don’t grow up and you’re just permanently toddlers… You’ll eventually get your emotions under control.”

“I don’t wanna be little forever,” The archangel whimpered.

“Which is why we’re going to do our best to find a cure.”

As they followed Sam’s directions to the store, Dean glanced at the angels through the rearview mirror. Gabriel was staring out the window, wiping subtly at his eyes. Castiel and Balthazar still slept, sprawled out on the seat.

They looked peaceful. Sure, there were dried tears on their faces, but, for once, they didn’t look worn down by the responsibilities they carried as angels. They just slept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I meant to get the shopping trip into this chapter, but it was getting long and there needed to be a break between care ride and shopping. Shenanigans shall ensue!
> 
> Comments give me life!


	3. Chapter 3

**“ALRIGHT, WE’RE HERE,”** Dean told the group as he parked. He twisted in his seat to view the back.

Gabriel was shimmying off the backseat, Balthazar was sitting up, rubbing his eyes, and Castiel was yawning, drawing a blanket closer to himself, eyes still closed. The Winchesters both got out of the car and opened the back doors. Gabriel slithered past Sam’s arms onto the pavement as Dean reached in and tapped Cas’ shoulder.

“Wha’?” The angel asked sleepily.

“Gotta wake up,” Dean told him.

“Noo,” He whined, shaking his head.

“Alright, then you can’t complain.”

“ ‘Bout wha’?”

“This.” Dean deftly wrapped a blanket over Castiel’s shoulders, hiding his wings, and scooped him into his arms, lying the angel on his back. At the movement, Cas opened his eyes and wiggled. “Hey, I said no complaining. Go back to sleep if you want.”

“Don’ needta sleep, ‘m ‘n angel,” Despite his mumbled protest, Castiel shifted to snuggle closer to Dean and quickly fell back to sleep. It was obvious he hadn’t woken up much in the first place.

“That’s what I thought,” Dean murmured, amused. 

“Gabriel, come on!” 

“No!”

Dean looked up to see Sam struggling with the archangel. He’d managed to grab him, but Gabriel was struggling to get out, kicking his feet which, Dean could see, had tiny rocks pressed on the soft skin.

“Gabriel, did you go onto the pavement after I told you not to?” Dean asked warningly. Gabriel paused in his struggling and looked, wide-eyed, over to the man.

“Noo,”

“Are you sure? Then what are those rocks in your feet?”

“Birfmarks! Uh… Freckles!”

Dean shook his head. “Let Sam carry you until we get a cart.”

Gabriel huffed and, after taking stock of his current situation, conceded. Sam shifted the small archangel to his hip and, despite his stated dislike of being carried, Gabriel wrapped an arm around Sam’s back, letting his head rest near Sam’s collarbone.

“Alright, Balthazar, your turn.”

“You’re  _ not _ picking me up!” Balthazar protested, trying to squirm away from Dean. He was tangled in blankets, however, and wasn’t as successful as he’d hoped. Dean easily leaned in and grabbed the child, pulling him mostly out of the car and unwrapping the blankets from around him. Sam stepped in and took Castiel out of his arms for the time being.

“I  _ am _ picking you up cause if Gabriel’s not walking across a parking lot barefooted, neither are you. Now help me get your jacket on so we can go inside.”

“Why do we even hafta go in?”

“Cause you need clothes and I’m not going to try to estimate your size. I want this to be as easy as possible, so you need to cooperate. Now get your jacket on.”

Grumbling under his breath but seeing the sense, Balthazar allowed Dean to pull his oversized jacket over his wings, not helping out. He similarly didn’t wrap an arm around Dean or hitch his legs around the man’s hip like Gabriel had to keep his balance, simply hanging limply from his arm.

“Come on,” Dean grumbled. “Work with me, I need to carry Cas too so Sam can take Gabriel and a jacket for Cas.” Balthazar huffed and obeyed. He had to admit, he felt much more secure this way. “Thank you.”

Dean picked Castiel up from where Sam had put him on the seat as his brother found a jacket to put on Castiel, should he wake up and reject the blanket.

“Sam! Look, a car!”

“Can we do the car cart?” 

The two angels currently away leaned in their humans’ arms, begging to get to get in the cart with a fake car attached.

“We are  _ not _ doing the car cart.”

“But  _ Dean _ !”

Dean looked at the angels, the plaintive whine coming from them almost in unison. 

“It would give Cas more room to sleep in the basket,” Sam suggested. With a sigh, Dean gave in. 

“Fine, but no fighting if you get cramped, you hear?”

The two cheered as Sam pulled the car cart out, letting them crawl in. Dean carefully set Castiel into the basket, bundling up the jacket Sam had grabbed for a pillow. Dean thought it was one of his, but didn’t really care. Surprisingly, the angels were quiet in the fake car as Sam steered them towards the baby clothes section, which did take a bit of searching to find. Dean pushed his hands into his pockets, unwilling to look like he was enjoying the experience even a tiny bit.

"Alright, we're gonna grab things in different sizes then see if they fit," Dean sighed. He and Sam split up, keeping an eye on the cart and angels, and returned soon later with pants and shirts, all small, all different sizes and designs. 

“Hey, Gabriel, come out so we can hold stuff up to you, see what’ll fit best,” Dean instructed. Gaabriel was currently the biggest angel so whatever would fit him would be the biggest they could get.

“Why don’t we try the fitting rooms?” Sam suggested. “That way, we can see if the pants at least will fit them.”

Dean though for a moment. “Good idea,” He conceded. “Gabriel, come with me.” He searched through the piles of clothes they had grabbed, selecting the biggest sizes. The youthful archangel had crawled out of the car, squawking,  _ literally _ squawking like a bird, when Dean scooped him up. The man carried clothes in one arm, wiggling child in the other as he headed resolutely to the fitting rooms.

“Do you have a room open?” He asked as Gabriel nearly slid out of his grasp. “Gabe, stop it.”

“Yeah, number four,” The bored teen sitting near the rooms answered. “Good luck with getting clothes on him. My little cousins are awful when they’re wiggly.”

“Yeah, I’m getting the sense of that,” Dean grunted as he nearly dropped Gabriel. “Would you stay still for like, two seconds?”

“I wanna walk!” The angel replied.

“I said no! You don’t have shoes.”

The teen watched the two, an amused smile playing on her lips as she listened to them bickering on the way to the fitting room. Not long later, a tall man with long-ish, for a male, brown hair pushed a cart with two children, one sleeping in the basket, blanketed in clothes, the other sitting in the fake car piece on the front, playing with the steering wheel.

“You need a room?”

The man startled slightly. “Oh- no, I’m waiting for my brother.”

“Is he the one with the wiggly kid, Gabriel I think he called him?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“So, are they his or yours or…?”

“Um, I just adopted Gabriel and his brothers-” Here, Sam waved at Castiel and Gabriel as his mind spat out a cover story. “And they didn’t have anything but oversized jackets, so Dean offered to help me get them clothes. I don’t have anything for them, so we’re kinda getting everything.”

“Oh, poor babies. Well, it’s great that you took them on, you look like you’ll be great for them.”

Sam forced a laugh, ignoring the obnoxious squeaking that came from Balthazar playing with the fake car horn. “I hope so. I have no clue what to do with kids, I was only really planning for one, but when they called about these three, I couldn’t split them up. They’ve already been through too much.”

The teen offered him a slight smile and the short conversation between the two died. Sam set to hanging the articles of clothing that had hangers- most of them, really- on the side of the cart, uncovering Castiel, who was still sleeping peacefully. He’d gathered a couple of shirts around a balled-up fist jammed under his head, and Sam carefully extracted them, trying his hardest not to disturb the sleeping child. 

Too late, he realized he had. 

"Sam?" Cas asked sleepily, blinking his eyes open. "Wha's… Where-” He was interrupted by a yawn. “- Where are we? Where's Dean 'n Gabr'el 'n Bal- Baf-"

"We're in the store," Sam replied, leaning over the side of the cart and running his fingers through Castiel's hair as he stirred. "Dean and Gabriel are trying clothes on and Balthazar is in the fake car attached to the cart."

“They put cars on carts?”

“Sorta. Wanna see?”

“Yeah,” Cas stretched one arm out for Sm to pick him up, the other rubbing at his eyes. He seemed to be the only one okay with being picked up as he snuggled close to Sam. “My eyes feel funny.”

“Well, you cried yourself to sleep earlier and you haven’t had anything to drink, that could be why.”

“Huh.”

Sam kneeled next to the car, where Gabriel had sat. He moved to open the little door-

“Where’s Baf’zar?”

Sure enough, Balthazar’s side of the car was empty and a bolt of terror shot through Sam. He shot to his feet, patting Castiel’s head at his surprised whine, looking around desperately for the little angel.

“Balthazar?” He called.

“Ba’zar?” Cas copied, trying to help. Sam spun desperately, not catching any sight of the toddler.

“Okay, Cas, stay here,” He ordered, setting Castiel back in the cart, situating the blanket he was wrapped in to hang over his shoulders. “I’m not going far, I just need to find Balthazar.”

“Okay.” Cas stood up, fingers looping through the bars of the cart, peering through in his own search.

A few minutes later, Sam came back, carrying a squirming Balthazar.

“You can't go running off like that!” He scolded. 

“But I’m  _ bored _ !”

“No! We’ll move on later! You need to stay put and not leave.” He said this as he deposited the blond in the basket with Cas.

“What abou’ the car?”

“You don’t get to sit in the car anymore,” Sam told him harshly. “You don’t get the car if you go running off.”

“I won’t run anymore, I swear!  _ Please _ , I wanna sit in the car!”

“No. Not this time. Maybe next time we’re in the store, if they have a car cart.”

“But-” Tears were welling in Balthazar’s eyes as he pouted and Cas patted his shoulder. Not realizing his brother was awake, Balthazar jumped at the touch and was promptly distracted from the car.

“Hi, Cas,”

“Hewwo.” Cas frowned, and opened his mouth, about to comment on the new mispronunciation.

“Quietly,” Sam told him before he could start, leaning down to talk to the two in a near-whisper. “You can tell us all about it when we get to the car, but there are too many people here to say something at normal volume. They’ll ask questions.”

Cas shut his mouth and nodded, sitting down and playing with the corner of the blanket. He apparently liked it as he wrapped it around himself and snuggled into it, resembling a small pile of fabric with a head.

“ ‘M still bored,” Balthazar muttered. Sam sighed. 

“I know, but we need to wait. Dean and Gabriel should be out soon, then one or both of you will go back with him to try clothes on, alright? Then we’ll go find shoes so you guys can walk around later.”

Balthazar sighed and laid down, resting his head on Cas’ blanket. The angel reached out to pet him and soon, mercifully, Dean came out, carrying Gabriel and the clothes.

“So?”

“3T seemed to fit him best,” Dean murmured, setting the child in the basket with his brothers, then sorting through what did and didn’t fit. “I grabbed some of the things labelled by months and the 24 months fit him a little, but 18 months didn’t.”

“Okay, um… All three of you, can you stand up right next to each other?” Sam asked, getting down on one knee to see them easier as they obeyed. “Okay, try 2T and the 18 months sizes for Cas and Balthazar, I think those will fit.”

“Alright. Who wants to come with me first?”

Cas reached up, bouncing on his toes to get picked up, his blanket slipping down his shoulders. 

“Okay, then,” Dean picked the dark-haired angel up, fixing the blanket. “Good to see you awake.”

“Good t’ see you,” Cas replied, clinging to Dean’s shirt as Sam picked things out of different sizes to give him. Once he finished, Dean took his tiny friend back.

“Alright, so here’s how we’re doing this,” He started, setting the angel on the bench and putting the clothes down. “We’re gonna take the blanket and shirt off and you’re gonna try the pants on. I’m gonna hold the shirts up to you at some point so we can see what looks like it’ll fit you. We’ll cut wing-slits out when we get another motel room, okay?”

“Kay,” Cas replied, shrugging the blanket off. Dean helped him out of the stitched t-shirt, which he finally realized was his faded Led Zeppelin shirt. 

2T pants were just a little big on him, same with the 24 months. (Dean suspected that they were the same thing with different labels) The 18 months, however, fit him fairly well. Dean hadn’t grabbed anything smaller and, since it was the smallest size he had in the room, it looked like Sam hadn’t either.

Dean got the t-shirt back onto Cas after holding a couple t-shirts up to him- Same deal, 18 months seemed to be best. He tied the corners of the blanket around Cas’ neck like a cape and put the clothes back on the hanger before carrying his shrunken friend back out.

“18 months fits him pretty well,” Dean told Sam. He didn’t put the clothes down, instead just picking Balthazar up and repeating the process. 18 months, 24 months, and 2T all fit him well enough.

Once the three angels were back in the cart, Sam and Dean began separating out what didn’t fit any of them and what did. Because they had a range of four sizes, the ‘fit’ pile was fairly large. Dean was taking the clothes that didn’t fit to the return rack when the teen got up from the desk she was sitting at, clutching a piece of paper that she gave to Sam.

“I take care of my baby cousins, so I wrote you a list of things to get your boys,” She told him. “It should be most of what you need, but I could have forgotten some.”

Sam unfolded the list and was surprised by the amount of items on the list. “Well, it’s better than what I had, so thank you,” He smiled at her and she gave him a small smile back as she went back to her post. 

“Let’s go to shoes,” Sam murmured as Dean ushered Gabriel and Castiel into the car, having been updated on Balthazar’s banishment. The aforementioned angel was instead sitting in the basket, pouting. Dean took the list from his hands and skimmed it as he followed his brother.

“That’s a lot of stuff,” He muttered. “ ‘Outside toys, i.e. chalk’? ‘Plastic dishes and utensils’? Really?”

“Well, most kids play outside,” Sam replied absently. “Well… Normal kids. The plastic kind of makes sense, so they don’t end up stabbing themselves in the mouth with a metal fork.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Dean muttered as Sam came to a stop in an aisle of shoes. Most of them were little kid shoes, which only made sense, considering their end goal. “Alright, you wanna take Gabriel to find shoes and I’ll stay with Cas and Balthazar?”

“That works,” Sam replied. “Gabriel, you can walk around here.”

“Really?” The angel tumbled out of the car, bouncing on his toes. “Where’re we gonna go?”

“Gonna find you shoes. Here, hold my hand and we’ll look,” Sam held his hand out and Gabriel, after a few seconds, put his in it, dwarfed by the tall man. The two wandered away and Dean turned to his two charges.

“Okay, I guess we’re just gonna try stuff on?” Dean glanced at the two. Castiel had gotten out of the car and was standing next to Dean, hand on his leg, staring up at all the shoes. “Cas, you’ll go first since you’re right here.” He grabbed a random pair and put one shoe next to the child’s foot. It looked like it might fit. He slipped it on and looked for his toe, remembering doing this for Sam. John may have been fine with clothes, especially shirts, being too big, but never shoes. 

“Always take care of your feet,” He’d always say. “Shoes that don’t fit will hurt your feet and if your feet are hurting, you’re not hunting the best you can.”

The shoe was just a bit too big but Dean held onto it for Balthazar to try on. Checking the size, he found another pair in the size under, which seemed to fit Cas just fine. He grabbed two pairs of that size, just to be safe. 

“Alright, try these on,” He helped Balthazar into the shoe and had him stand up in the cart to check if they fit. They fit surprisingly well and Dean grabbed another pair. Soon, Sam and Gabriel returned. They hadn’t been very far away.

“Nothing fits over, there, it’s all too big.”

“Try something here, Cas and Balthazar have two pairs each that fit.” 

Dean waited as Sam found Gabriel shoes. He apparently wore the same size as Balthazar, which was convenient.

“There you go,” Sam spoke with finality as he tossed two pairs in the cart. Balthazar watched and packed one pair up.

“No fair!” He whined. “Why does Gabe get cool shoes?”

Cas, who was wandering somewhere near the car, turned and pattered back to the cart.

“I wanna see!” He called as he tried to climb up the cart. Sam picked him up and deposited him inside, doing the same to Gabriel a few seconds later. Balthazar handed Cas the ‘cool’ shoes and the angel inspected them then looked at Dean.

“I want cool shoes,” He told him. Dean looked between Cas and Balthazar, both who had small pouts, and the ‘cool’ shoes- a pair of t-rex high-tops- and sighed. 

“Fine. You guys each get one pair of cool shoes and one pair of normal shoes.”

“Yay!” Balthazar cheered, hopping to his feet but tumbling back over onto Gabriel when the cart shifted. Gabriel pushed him off and pushed shoes at him.

“Pick your shoes,” He told him. The blond sat up and thought.

“I want these ones,” He decided, pointing at a pair of gray and black shoes with two velcro straps. Dean took the other pair, a plain gray mesh, and replaced them on the rack.

“Now let Cas pick his shoes then I’ll let you two pick your cool shoes.”

Castiel was considering the two pairs of shoes Sam placed in his lap then pointed at the red pir with two velcro straps. “These, please,” He murmured. Sam replaced the black, single velcro strap ones on the shelf and lifted Cas out of the cart, Dean doing the same to Balthazar.

Eventually, Balthazar decided on a pair of Batman shoes with the Batman symbol as the velcro strap while Castiel picked black and blue light-up shoes. As the angels and their shoes were deposited back in the cart, Gabriel was fiddling with his other pair- blue and gray slip-ons.

“Socks,” Sam muttered as they left the shoe aisle, finding socks among child’s underwear.

“I feel funny,” Balthazar spoke up while Sam and Dean were picking packs of socks.

“What kind of funny?”

“Like… funny.”

“Me too,” Gabriel mumbled, wiggling. Cas nodded in agreement.

Dean noticed Gabriel’s uncomfortable squirming. “Are you wiggling cause of the funny feeling?”

“... Yeah, I think.”

“Great,” Dean sighed. “Sam, after you get socks, go find food stuff. I’m gonna take them to the bathroom.”

“Wait, how do you know that’s what’s wrong?”

“I potty-trained  _ you _ , I know what this looks like,” Dean raised a brow. “Alright, Gabriel, you’re going on my shoulders.” He helped the angel up, then picked Cas and Balthazar up, one on each hip. He left, quickly searching for the bathroom. 

“Gabriel, if you pee on my neck, I will smack you silly.”

“Understood,” Gabriel squeaked, shifting uncomfortably. “Just, please hurry.”

Luckily, Dean found the bathroom and, even more luckily, it was empty. 

“Alright, in. Don’t touch anything.” He ordered. He put Balthazar down first, getting him situated on the toilet then closing the stall door gently. After getting the other two situated, he held two stall doors closed with his hands, the third with a foot as he tried to explain how to pee to three little angels. Eventually, it seemed like they got it, thankfully. Gabriel was finished first and then he had to go through teaching him how to flush a toilet, doing the same with Balthazar and letting them walk around, trying his hardest to ignore the fact that they were barefoot in a public restroom. Ew.

“Cas, you doing okay?” He asked. The little angel hadn’t pulled on the door like Balthazar and Gabriel had.

“Um… Can you come here?” Cas asked softly. Dean opened the door slightly.

“What is it?”

“I um… I don’t think I can get down,” Cas whispered, his face bright red. Dean helped him out, flushing the toilet, then herded the three to the sinks. Even with the built-in stool thing, Gabriel was the only one just barely able to reach the sink. Dean helped the angel wet his hands and get soap on them and, seeing that he had figured out that he needed to spread the soap all over his hands and rinse them, Dean grabbed Balthazar, helping him reach the sink and teaching him next.

So strange to realize what angels don’t need when suddenly, they did need it and didn’t know what it was.

Dean was setting Balthazar down, helping him dry his hands with the paper towels when he turned to help Cas. Gabriel, however, beat him. He was just barely able to lift Cas enough for the smallest angel to reach the sink and Dean stepped in, smearing soap on Cas’ hands and helping him rinse it off.

Once all three had washed and dried their hands (Dean did too. You never knew what was in a public restroom), Gabriel was replaced on Dean’s shoulders (Bare bathroom feet hitting his shirt,  _ ew _ .) and Balthazar and Castiel were lifted once more.

They found Sam looking at applesauce, the cart considerably fuller than when they’d left.

“Pull-ups?” Dean questioned as he ushered Gabriel and Castiel into the car, clearing a spot out in the cart for Balthazar to sit.

“I figured that, sure they recognize that something’s off when they have to go to the bathroom, but when if they don’t realize in time or there isn’t a bathroom nearby? They’re not used to this and I looked it up, 2 years old is the earliest to start toilet training, but that’s normal kids and I thought we’d try them? Just until they’re used to this?”

Dean sighed. “Alright, I guess. Just the one box? Do they need different sizes?”

“I don’t think so? At least, it looks like that’s going to fit all three of them, based on the chart on the back.”

Dean hummed to himself as he turned the box to look at said chart. Eventually, he nodded. “Okay, so what now?”

“Food? Do you think they’ll like applesauce?”

“You did,” Dean shrugged, grabbing a six-pack of applesauce cups. “Cups or those squeezy pouches?”

“Try both? I don’t have a clue.” 

Dean shrugged and tossed a box of applesauce pouches and applesauce cups in the cart, making sure he didn’t hit Balthazar. After a second’s thought, he lifted the angel and stuck him in the child seat. He didn’t make a noise of complaint- all three of them were just tired of getting picked up and manhandled.

The Winchesters loaded the cart with food for the angels, including hot dogs, supplies for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and box mac and cheese.

“I’m bored,” Balthazar whined softly. It was the first thing he’d said in a while- He’d been sitting glumly in the cart as Cas and Gabriel chattered in the car. 

“I know, we’re almost done,” Dean promised. 

“You know what?” Sam turned the trajectory of the cart, heading for the back of the store. Dean, mystified, protested, but Sam didn’t listen until he slowed to a stop in the toy aisle. “You guys can pick one or two each, but no more than that, you hear?”

He helped Balthazar out of the cart and released the angels to wander the toy aisle as he looked over the list. 

“Dean,” He groaned suddenly. “We forgot pajamas. They can’t just sleep in day clothes like we do.”

“I’ll go find some,” Dean volunteered. “You okay to stay here and watch them?”

“They seem pretty occupied,” 

Sam had pulled into an aisle with mostly stuffed animals and the three of them were crowded in one spot, staring at something the adults couldn’t see. 

Dean left his brother to supervise the toddler angels and began searching through the kids’ pajamas. He decided that he would take two sets for each angel and, if needed, they’d get more later. He found a dinosaur set in Gabriel’s size- what was it with this kid and dinosaur stuff?- and a dragon set. He figured Gabriel would like them, and grabbed Batman and Spiderman pajamas for Balthazar, since they were the most popular in that size it seemed. For Castiel, it seemed that onesies and footie jammies were most common, especially in multi-packs. He shrugged and grabbed some that seemed really soft with little fox designs, then headed back. On his way, he stopped. 

There were tiny fleece booties with the exact same foxes as Cas’ pajamas. Fighting an internal battle, Dean stared at the booties.

“Really?”

“Shut it,” Dean grumbled as he dropped the pajama sets and booties in the cart. “They have grippies on them so he won’t risk slipping.”

Sam shook his head as Gabriel returned, waving a boxed toy at him. It was some black dragon named Toothless, which Dean thought was stupid. It was obvious this fake dragon had teeth.

Eventually, thankfully, Gabriel and Balthazar were ready to go. Strangely, Castiel was standing in one spot, his back to everyone else, head down. Tossing a frown at Sam, Dean went to go investigate.

“Hey, Cas,” He murmured, getting down on one knee next to the angel. “What’s up?”

Castiel looked at the ceiling instead of answering.

“What’s wrong?” Dean reiterated, forgetting just how literal the angel could get. 

“Nothing is… Wrong, I just, I don’ un’erstand the poin’ of a stuffed piece of fab’ic.”

“It’s a stuffed animal, Cas,” Dean had to fight to keep from laughing.

“Was it  _ alive _ ?” Castiel squeaked in sudden horror, throwing the toy he held to the floor.

“No! No, it’s just fabric.” Dean reassured. “I think kids use them as like, comfort objects? They’re soft, which I think most kids like.”

“Weren’t you a kid once?”

“Not… Not really. I mean, I raised Sammy, but he didn’t get a stuffed animal. Mine, uh… Mine burned in the fire.

“Oh,” Cas’ voice had taken on that already familiar tone.

“Now don’t you start crying again,” Dean scolded gently. “It’s over, it’s passed. Now, do you want the stuffed animal?”

Cas leaned to pick the thrown teddy bear, dusting it off and apologizing for throwing it.

“I would like to keep it.”

“Alright, is that all?”

Cas turned in a circle then nodded. "I believe I am ready to go. But where's Sam?"

Dean turned and groaned. Sam and the cart had disappeared. "Well, let's go find him."

He set off and let Castiel walk behind him. Clinging to the bear, he toddled after the man. 

"Dean!" The man heard a small voice yelping. "Dean!" He turned to see Castiel struggling to keep up, stumbling over the hem of the jacket. Dean started to move to meet the struggling angel, but before he reached him, he tripped over the jacket and landed hard on the ground. 

Dean could see his face screwing up as he picked the little one up. 

"Hey, hey, don't cry," Dean shushed, putting the angel on his back and rocking him gently. Some woman that had been seen Cas' fall came over and handed Dean the teddy bear, Dean nodding his thanks. "Did that hurt?"

Whimpering, Cas nodded. Dean shifted him along his arm and bounced him a little. "Your hands?" Nod. Dean pushed the bear into his other hand and took Cas' hands in his, looking at the stinging red palms. Dean pressed a gentle kiss to each palm then one on his forehead. "Do you want your bear?"

"Mhmm," Dammit. Cas' voice was still thick with tears. Dean pushed the thought away and gave Cas the bear, sitting the toy on his stomach. Cas took it and wiped at his eyes with one hand as Dean set to finding Sam.

He found his brother and the cart (other two angels included) in the produce section.

“Dude, why’d you leave?” He questioned as he interrupted Sam’s investigation of a bunch of bananas.

“Didn’t you hear me? I called that I was leaving. What happened to Cas?”

Dean looked down at the angel. By this time, there were dried tear tracks from a moment where he’d broken down, but he was now completely focused on playing with his bear, moving the paws and mouthing something as though he were speaking, but he was completely silent.

“He tripped. He's okay though now, right buddy?”

Castiel looked up and nodded, going right back to playing with the bear.

“Alright, well, I think it’s about time to go,” Sam murmured, setting bananas into the cart.

“You think?” Dean snorted, noticing the cart was devoid of any angels. “Where’s Balthazar?”

“In the car with Gabriel. I let up on him since it’s been such a long trip and he’s never done this before.”

“He still needs to listen to you. Us.”

“He never has before,” Sam shrugged, pushing the cart toward the check-out. “He just has to get used to this. We all do.”

Dean helped Sam put things on the conveyor belt one-handed- He was still holding Cas snuggled to his chest with his other arm. Sam set to putting bagged things into the cart as Dean unloaded the rest of them.

“Hey Cas?” Dean spoke softly, nudging the angel slightly. “Can you let the man scan your bear so we can buy it?”

Castiel looked up and held the bear out to be taken. The man scanning all the groceries swiped it under then handed it back to Dean.

“He’d probably like to keep playing with it,” He explained. Dean nodded.

“He’s had a bad day. All three of them have, really.” Cas took the bear from Dean when offered and hugged it close, resting his chin on the bear’s fluffy head.

The bear was the last thing to be scanned and the cashier rattled off the total, a three-figure number that made Dean cry inside. He swiped one of his many fraudulent credit cards and then finally,  _ finally _ , they left the store.

They first got the angels set up in the car, situating them in the backseat and taking off the jackets that cramped their wings. With the promise that they could get in normal clothes as soon as they got another motel room. Cas kept tight hold on his bear, but did let Balthazar and Gabriel mess with it. While they did this, Sam and Dean loaded the trunk up.

“Never thought I’d see this, honestly,” Dean sighed. “Baby loaded in baby stuff. I mean, even with Lisa and Ben…”

“Yeah,” Sam let out a slight, breathy laugh. “It’s surreal.”

“It’s messed up is what it is, the circumstances.”

“True,” Sam conceded as Dean took hold of the cart to take it to the return. Sam made his way to the passenger side and got in, turning to look at the three. “That’s a cool bear, Cas.”

Cas smiled only slightly. Even as a child, he was grim. “He’s very fuffy.”

“He is,” Sam agreed, reaching out to feel the bear’s fur. “What’s his name?”

“Name?”

“Well, yeah, every toy has a name.”

Cas stared at the bear. “I don’no.”

“Here, give him to me,” Sam offered. “I can tell you what his name is.”

“How?”

“Me and Dean are teddy bear doctors on Thursdays, so I can talk to them. He’ll tell me what his name is.”

“Really?” Cas gaped as he crawled forward on the seat to give the bear to Sam. Balthazar was sitting in similar disbelief while Gabriel was giving the Winchester a dubious look. He looked like he wanted to say something but kept his mouth shut, recognizing the wonder on his little brothers’ faces and relishing it. He’d not seen something like that since the two were little.

The first time.

“Oh yeah,” Sam grinned as he held the bear’s “mouth” to his ear. He then pretended like it was talking to him, responding to what it “told” him. “Uh huh? Yeah? Oh, really?”

“What’s he sayin’? What’s he sayin’?” Cas bounced on the seat, practically begging for an answer.

“What’s who sayin’?” Dean asked as he slid into his seat.

“Sam can talk to bears ‘n he’s gonna tell us what his name is!” Balthazar explained excitedly.

“Is he now?” Dean shot a teasing glance at his brother, receiving a “don’t you dare” look in return.

“Yeah, and do you wanna know what his name is?” Sam asked as he handed the bear back to Castiel, who nodded multiple times. Both he and Balthazar were practically quivering in anticipation by this point, a sight which both men found amusing. “He said his name is Mr. Fuffs.”   


“Mr. Fuffs,” Cas repeated, playing with the soft paws again. 

Shaking his head with a smirk, Dean started the car and navigated his way out of the parking lot. Sam looked up directions to a motel in a different town and they set to driving, telling the angels that it would probably be an hour’s trip or so.

“You tell us if you feel funny, okay?” Dean told them, glancing back through the rearview mirror. “We’ll do our best to figure out what’s wrong. And definitely tell us if you guys have to go to the bathroom again, understand?”

“Yes, Dean,” Gabriel spoke solemnly, watching Castiel and Balthazar play with the bear. His light wings were spread and flapping gently, in contrast with Cas and Balthazar, who both had their wings folded tightly to their backs. Eventually, he switched to staring out the window as the landscape passed by, just barely tall enough to see out the window while sitting.

An hour or so later, as Dean was getting off the exit, Cas spoke up.

“Sumfin feels off,”

“What kind of off?” Sam asked, turning in his seat. He’d been looking into the backseat and awful lot since this morning.

“Uh… Squeezy. Uncomfor’ble.”

“Where do you feel squeezy?”

Cas moved his hands first around his stomach, then ended up motioning to all of himself, shifting suddenly to curl his knees to his chest, whining softly.

“I don’no what it is ‘n it a’most hurts,” As had happened way too many times today, tears began to fill the toddler’s eyes. “I don’ like it.”

“Okay, okay, hold on,” Sam tried to reassure him. “We’ll figure it out, okay? We’re just a few minutes away from the motel then we’ll park and we’ll figure it out. You’re okay.”

Cas sniffed and rested his chin on his knees. As Dean pulled into the motel parking lot, the child burst into loud sobs.

“It  _ hurts _ !” He wailed. “Make it stop!”

Dean quickly pulled into a parking spot and Sam quickly got out, pulling Cas into his arms, trying to soothe him.

“I think he’s hungry,” He told his brother over the crying. “Can you go check in and I’ll deal with this?”

“Are you sure? Don’t need my help?”

“Just go and get the room, it’ll be a lot easier there.”

Dean shrugged and loped off, tossing Sam the keys to allow him to open the trunk.

“Okay, hold on,” Sam muttered, putting Cas back into the car and digging through the trunk. He found a pack of toddler snack bowls he’d grabbed then found the box of Cheerios he’d grabbed on a whim, having occasionally seen mothers giving their children Cheerios while working cases. He poured the Cheerios into the snack bowl after tearing the packaging open, then hurried around to the side of the car Castiel was in, wincing at how loud his cries had gotten.

“Serious set of lungs on you, kid,” He murmured. “Alright, Cas, I have something that will help you but you need to quiet down.”

“What?” Cas sniffed after a few seconds. Sam held up the bowl.

“I’m thinking you’re hungry, so I got you something to eat.”

“But I’m ‘n angel, I don’ need food! Or sleep!”

“Cas, please. It might help you feel better.”

“But I don’ need it-”

“Do you want to keep having the squeezy feeling?”

This effectively shut Castiel up and, grumbling, he reached forward and took two pieces of cereal out of the bowl. As he was eating them, Gabriel curiously slid off the seat and reached for the bowl. Sam let him then Balthazar take some cereal, then set it on the seat, seeing Dean coming back.

By the time Dean reached the car, all three angels were eating, sporadically taking more cereal. Sam was loading the bowls and Cheerios back into the bags, looking up when Dean handed a key to him.

“Room’s on the other side of the building,” He told Sam, taking the car keys back and getting in the driver’s seat as Sam picked the Cheerio bowl up, ordering the angels back onto the seat and setting it in Gabriel’s lap as he was now in the middle.

“You hold onto that tight and don’t let it spill, understand? We’re going to drive a little bit more.” At Gabriel’s nod, Sam closed the door and slid into his own seat.

By the time Dean parked in front of their room, the bowl was empty and Cas was satisfied, for now. Sam went to unlock the door while Dean spoke to the three.

“Alright, we’re going to take you guys inside then bring all the stuff we bought in-”

“But we should help!” Gabriel interrupted.

“Huh?”

“We can carry some stuff in. I wanna help!”

“Um, alright… Let me get shoes and socks on you then you can walk around.”

“Dino ones!” Gabriel squealed as Dean got out of the car. The man dug through the trunk for the shoes, assuming that all three would want their ‘cool’ shoes. He assumed right and after struggling to get socks and shoes on them, all three were bouncing around on the sidewalk, watching the blinking lights on Cas’ shoes with fascination.

“You wanted to help?” Dean called through their squeals, causing all three to run over to the trunk. Sam returned around the time he was giving a bag of clothes to Gabriel. Dean moved over to allow his little brother to load up with bags as he continued to give the angels one bag each, ordering them to follow Sam as he grabbed a bunch of groceries himself. They ended up dropping everything in front of a bed with the promise of going through and sorting it all out later.

The pull ups and Castiel’s bear- Mr. Fuffs- were the last things to come in. Brimming with satisfaction at helping, the angels dove into the bags, declaring their desire to help go through everything.

“Alright, alright,” Sam pulled Gabriel from the pile. “You can help, just let us tell you what to do.”

“Here, go through the bags and if you find any clothes, take them over to a dresser,” Dean instructed. With dutiful nods, the three got to work as the Winchester brothers set to putting food on the table and, since this room mercifully had counters, dishes went on the counters.

It didn’t take too long to get everything sorted out, and the remaining items in the pile were things like the pull ups box, toys, and a bag of different colored threads that Dean held up questioningly. Sam shrugged him off and went over to the pile of clothes.

“Alright, let’s get you guys in pants and then Dean and I will cut wing-slits into shirts,” He told them, checking sizes then giving each of them a pair of jeans. The men helped the angels into pull ups then pants and left the stitched shirts off. Dressed only in jeans and socks- their shoes had been taken off to get the jeans on- the angels chased each other around the room. While they did so, Sam and Dean sorted through the clothes to make piles of whose were whose. Once this was done, Sam called Gabriel over and made the first cuts on his shirt, using him to help figure out the right size for the slits on his shirts. He held onto the shirt when he was done, dismissing him to go back and play, Dean doing the same with Balthazar. They cut the slits in their shirts first, Sam calling Castiel to get slits done while Dean wrestled shirts onto Gabriel and Balthazar. Before releasing them to play again, Sam had them pick out thread colors. Cas chose orange, Gabriel chose green, and Balthazar chose black. They ran off and Sam finally explained what he was doing.

“We’re going to need to separate their clothes out somehow, especially since Balthazar wears the most sizes. So I’m gonna sew a few stitches into their clothes in their color to identify whose is whose.”

After a few moments, Dean shrugged, realizing that it was actually a fairly good idea. He took a needle and the black thread, grabbing Balthazar’s clothes and sewing the stitches in while Sam worked on Cas’.

With the angels making up their own games and occasionally asking for help opening toys, not that there were many, Sam and Dean were left to put the stitches in in relative peace. 

Dinnertime soon rolled around, just when they were finishing up, and they had to decide what they would do. Should they make something or go out?

Having forgotten to get anything to make food in, Dean eventually left to pick up fast food while Sam was roped into playing with the angels. Dean came back to his brother lying flat on the ground, three angels on top of him, wings fluttering as they giggled at his dramatics.

“What’s going on?” Dean asked, confused as to why Sam was flailing and going on about “seeing the light”.

“We killed him!” Gabriel laughed.

“In the game.” Cas clarified. “Sam is physically perfectly fine otherwise.”

“Well, that’s good,” Dean grinned, coming over. “I brought dinner, so he’s gotta get up.”

The angels tumbled off, letting Sam sit up. Dean called the angels over and, after arguing whether or not they needed food, got the three set up to eat on the floor while a Disney movie (suggested by the teen in Walmart) played on the laptop.

The room was fairly quiet, save for the sound of the movie playing through the laptop’s speakers as everyone ate. Dean didn’t really know what it was about, just that it came out in 2008 and was about robots. He thought they might like it and Sam had found it on the movies clearance rack at some point.

By the end, Castiel and Balthazar were yawning and blinking sleepily.

“Alright, let’s get you changed for bed,” Dean murmured, picking Cas up from their spot on the ground. Before getting him into his fox footie pajamas, he made sure to have him and Balthazar go to the bathroom. The angels sleepily complied, neither arguing as Sam and Dean got them into their pajamas. 

“Where will they sleep?” Sam asked, the thought just occuring to him. Dean paused, Castiel’s pajamas half-zipped.

“I guess with us. Who do you want with you?”

“Wan’ sleep wi’ Dea’,” Cas mumbled, eyes closed as the aforementioned finished zipping the jammies and buttoned the little flap that kept the zip from moving and being pulled down.

“Guess I’ll take Cas then,” Dean murmured.

“Uh, yeah,” Sam agreed. “Balthazar’s already asleep so I’ll take him.”

Dean looked over and sure enough, Balthazar was sleeping, shrouded in his Spiderman pajamas. He moved Cas to lay near the pillow, the angel very close to following his brother to sleep. He pushed the stuffed bear next to him and the child sleepily accepted it, snuggling it close.

“Hey, Gabriel?” He heard Sam ask softly and turned to see his brother crouching next to the angel as he closed the laptop. “It’s time to go to bed.”

“ ‘M not tired,” Gabriel replied. 

“Well, can you change into your pajamas?”

Gabriel shook his head. “Don’t need to sleep.”

“Yes you do,” Dean retorted, carefully keeping his voice low enough so as not to disturb the sleeping infants. 

“No, I… I dunno how.”

A frown crossed Dean’s face. “What do you mean? You said that angels sleep to help restore their grace.”

“Well, not ezac’ly,” Gabriel replied. “We rest, we don’ sleep.” He then turned his gaze on the man. “I never sleeped before.”

“Well, you need to now,” Sam murmured. “So let’s get you changed, okay?”

“No!” Gabriel shouted. “I don’ wanna sleep!” Dean moved to pick him up and he scrambled away, screaming and thrashing as Sam caught him.

“Quiet down,” Dean hissed. “You’re gonna wake Cas and Balthazar.”

“Hey, hey, Gabriel,” Sam tried to get the struggling archangel to listen to him. “Go get your shoes on then you and I will go take a walk, okay? But you need to calm down.” Gabriel nodded and Sam let him down to pull his shoes on. Sam, having not taken his boots off yet, simply waited. Dean heaved a stressed sigh as the two watch him struggle slightly to get the dinosaur high-tops on.

“Maybe if he calms down he’ll be a bit more open to the idea,” Sam muttered. “Or I’ll walk him around till he passes out. Don’t wait up for us, okay?”

“Alright, take a key.”

Sam took Gabriel’s hand as they left, taking smaller, slower steps so he didn’t rush the child. He walked laps around the motel building wordlessly, letting Gabriel decide if he wanted to say anything.

“I don’t wanna sleep,” He finally spoke up around the beginning of the second lap. 

“Why not?”

“I’ve never had to. I… I don’ know how.”

“That’s okay,” Sam reassured him, getting down on one knee to look the archangel in the eyes. “We’ll help you. Me and Dean will keep you safe, so you don’t have to worry about anything.”

“But I don’t want to.”

“Here, tell you what. You can stay with me and I’ll sit up with you until you do. If you don’t, we’ll call it my mistake and I won’t pressure you into sleeping anymore, okay?”

Gabriel sighed. “Okay.”

“Great. Do you want to keep walking around or go back to the room?”

“... Can we keep walking?”

“Of course,” Sam stood back up and the two continued. Four laps later, Gabriel was lagging behind, even with Sam’s adjusted steps. 

“Do you want to go back to the room now?”

“No, I-” He was interrupted by a yawn as he rubbed at his eyes. “ -’m okay. ‘M ‘wake.”

It was comical, really. He was struggling to keep his eyes open and keep up with Sam, but refused to admit he was tired. The man stopped and let Gabriel catch up, then began leading him back to their room. When Gabriel realized this, however, he began pulling away.

“I don’t wanna,” He whined. “ ‘M fine, really.”

Sam sighed and tried to pick him up. At the feeling of hands around him, Gabriel began thrashing and screaming again, hitting Sam across the face with a wing, only stopping when Sam walked away from the door to take his sixth lap around the building. Once Gabriel stopped resisting, Sam adjusted to hold him more comfortably for both of them. The motion from Sam walking seemed to soothe the child because halfway through the lap around the building, he let his head fall against Sam with a tired sigh, nustling his tawny head into the crook between Sam’s neck and shoulder. He had an arm slung across Sam’s chest in an attempt to reach his other shoulder, but his arms were too short. Sam combed a hand through his hair as he finished the lap around the building, this time making it back to the room with little argument. When he opened the door, there was only one lamp on and Dean was lying in his bed on his side, holding Castiel close. He lifted his head when Sam came in and the younger of the two nodded in an answer to his silent question- Is Gabriel okay to try to sleep?

Sam found the dinosaur pajamas and took Gabriel to the bathroom to get him changed. The movement and activity woke him up a little and he was, once again, protesting going to sleep.

“Can you at least stay with me in my bed?” Sam grunted as he tried to carry Gabriel out and got a mouthful of light-colored feathers. “I’m not asking you to go to sleep, I’m asking you to lay down and be quiet.”

“I guess,” Gabriel grumbled. Sam carefully eased himself and the toddler into bed, mindful of Balthazar, who was laying across a pillow, peacock wings wrapped around himself like a blanket. Before long after the two lied down and Dean clicked off the lamp, Gabriel was yawning again.

“Don’ hafta fall asleep, right?” He mumbled muzzily.

“That’s right,” Sam whispered in reply. He almost laughed as Gabriel’s breathing evened out and, in the dim light from the motel sign, his eyes fluttered closed.

“Is he out?” Dean breathed.

“Yeah, finally.”

“Good.”

“How did Cas and Balthazar do?”

Balthazar woke up long enough to crawl onto the pillow and call us hairless apes before he passed out again and Cas didn’t wake up at all. He seems like a really heavy sleeper. Loves that bear, he won’t stop cuddling with it.”

“Cute,” Sam yawned. “Dude, I’m exhausted. These guys wiped me out.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” He heard Dean shift a little. “I hope none of them are bed-wetters.”

“Hope so. That’d be a mess.”

“Bad enough with one of you, I don’t want to deal with three.”

“Right,” Sam agreed. “Alright, goodnight jerk.”

“Night bitch.” 


	4. Chapter 4

**SAM WASN’T SURE** why or how he woke up, just that he opened his eyes and it was still dark. He was about to roll over and go back to sleep, when he heard something.

It was a soft whine and the creak of a mattress. Still fuzzy-headed with sleep, he looked to the source, something near him, and froze.

In his half-awake state, he’d forgotten the current predicament he and Dean (and Cas, Balthazar, and Gabriel) were in. Still, seeing a small(er) Gabriel, light wings glowing in the dim light, it all came rushing back to him. 

This didn’t answer the question of  _ why _ he’d woken up, though, until Gabriel shifted again. Unexpectedly, the archangel began thrashing in his sleep, wings flapping as he began to cry out. Sam scooped him up, trying to wake the angel from the perceived nightmare he was having.

“No!” Gabriel screamed, still flailing. Tears were beginning to escape his tightly closed eyes, creeping down his cheeks, and Sam had no clue how to help him. Dean was still sleeping peacefully, Cas and Mr. Fuffs cuddled to his chest, but at the noise from his brother, Balthazar was stirring. Sam shifted so he held Gabriel in his lap and combed a hand through Balthazar’s hair, hoping he could get the little blond to settle back to sleep. Unsuccessful, Balthazar’s blue eyes opened.

“Wha’s goin’ on?” He asked softly. It seemed that when the angels- He and Cas, at least - were tired, they slurred.

“It’s okay Balthazar,” Sam whispered. “Go back to sleep, I’m dealing with it.”

Unfortunately, this wouldn't work as Gabriel’s noises were getting louder, his whimpers and shouts growing more frequent. Balthazar rolled off of the pillow and pressed a hand to his brother’s forehead, muttering “wake up” as a very dim, flickering light emitted from his palm. It seemed though, that the depleted grace was enough to jolt Gabriel into wakefulness, because the archangel suddenly stilled, eyes flying open as he stiffened up.

“Hey,” Sam murmured, moving a hand to brush Gabriel’s hair from his fear-sweaty forehead, just before the archangel dissolved into sobs. Sam pulled him to his chest and he grasped at the man’s shirt, shivering. Draped over Sam’s knee, Balthazar drowsily watched as Sam comforted his brother.

Sam held Gabriel as the little one shuddered and gasped, clinging to him desperately as though the man were a piece of driftwood in a turbulent, churning ocean. Sam first started off patting his back but eventually let his fingers brush the soft downy feathers of the archangel’s wings.

The effect was instantaneous. The feathers puffed up and moved closer to Sam’s hand, burying the tips of his fingers. Gabriel’s breathing hitched and though he was still crying, his wails quieted, somehow not waking Dean or Cas. Sam really thought his brother was a lighter sleeper than that though, with a pang of guilt, he’d not been getting such great sleep. He’d been too worried about Sam and his soul, always going to sleep later than him and, Sam suspected, staying up all night sometimes. Considering the fact that just barely touching his feathers had such a calming effect of the angel, Sam wiggled his fingers gently, unsure if the great shudder that ran through the little one’s body was good or not.

Sam went with good when Gabriel lifted his gaze, tears still lingering, fear and bliss battling in the whiskey color. Another swipe through the downy feathers caused the archangel’s eyes to close and his head to plunk against Sam’s chest, fingers curling in his shirt.

“Okay, what am I doing to him?” He whispered to Balthazar, who was sleepily watching with an amusing grin.

“When we’re young, we can’ au’matic’ly put our wings on th’ other plane. In th’ other plane, they don’t need upkeep, but on this plane, they do. ‘Fore we learn to put our wings on th’ other plane, when we’re still young, we tend to get ‘em dirty ‘n feathers break or get twisted, so we preen. It only lasts until we’re th’ angelic equiv’lent of a teenager, when we’re taught how to use our grace to push our wings away ‘n we have ‘nough grace to. Th’ archangels came into existence as teens, though, so I dunno how it worked for them, but I think you’re makin’ him feel like a newborn. Kind of like a mother cuddlin’ her baby?”

“Hmm,” Sam hummed thoughtfully as he combed his fingers through the light feathers. Gabriel curled into a little ball, seemingly involuntarily, as his wings pushed up against his hand. “Think I can get him back to sleep like this?”

“Maybe,” Balthazar seemed interested in this experiment, eyes gleaming as he shifted a little, still sprawled across Sam’s legs. “Try pettin’ the undersides.”

Sam glanced at the young angel before doing so, the feeling of the tiny feathers disturbed by a single finger causing Gabriel to curl in on himself, knees pulled almost to his chin, wings flared strangely. Balthazar was giggling, though would vehemently deny it if asked, finding the whole situation hilarious.

Sam set Gabriel on his back on the bed, still playing with his feathers as Balthazar reached over and started messing with the other wing. It was then that Gabriel’s eyes fluttered open.

“S-stop,” He protested weakly, pushing at Balthazar’s hand. Balthazar ignored him and, grin widening, dug his small fingers farther between downy feathers. Gabriel squealed, though he was quickly hushed, and squirmed to get away from his brother’s probing fingers. He was unfortunately pinned by Sam’s hand that was gently combing through the other wing. This gave Balthazar more opportunity to lean closer, wiggling his small fingers in a very specific spot near the base of Gabriel’s wing. The archangel squirmed, quiet squeals and giggles escaping his mouth.

“Gabriel, are you ticklish?” Sam asked, almost mischievously. 

“N-no-” Gabriel choked out, his answer immediately disproved by the squealing laughter that the single word trailed off into. Sam noticed where Balthazar was tickling him at and began tickling in the same place on his other wing, the combined force causing the archangel to dissolve into giggles as he struggled to get away.

Sam stared down at the squirming mess of archangel on the bed and almost busted into laughter himself. Gabriel’s hair was a mess and, despite the drying tear tracks on his cheeks, his face was red with laughter. He was kicking his legs out and, fearing he might end up hurting himself, Sam used one hand to hold him mostly still, though he could still wiggle.

“S-stop!” He squealed as he flailed. Sam cast a furtive glance to the other bed, knowing that Dean would never forgive him if he woke Cas up, especially when it was 3 AM, according to the alarm clock. Seeing the look, Gabriel pushed one hand against his mouth in an attempt to muffle his squeals, proven to be ineffective when Sam began tickling the archangel’s belly and sides.

It was then that Gabriel curled in on himself, struggling even harder to get away as the two mercilessly tickled him. He’d gone quite red by the time Sam stopped and pulled Balthazar’s hand away from his wing, and the archangel rolled over, wings wrapped around himself, shuddering from the overstimulation as his laughter died away, only to be replaced by hiccups.

“Sorry,” Sam whispered as Gabriel sat up, wrapping his arms around himself as he shook with hiccups.

“What-  _ hic- _ What’s goin’ on?”

“Hiccups,” Sam grinned. “You laughed so much that you got hiccups.”

“Why’d I wake up?”

“You were having a nightmare. I managed to get you to wake up but you weren’t calming down until I started petting your wings.”

“Oh,” Gabriel mumbled, shoulders shaking with another hiccup. “I think I remember now.”

“Wanna talk about it?” Gabriel shook his head as his gaze grew distant. “Well then don’t think about it. That’ll only work you up again.” Gabriel nodded with a hiccup, prompting Sam to get up and fill a sippy cup with water, handing it to the angel and telling him to drink it, as it may help. It did, and the archangel, upon discovering that he was thirsty, drained the cup. Sam set it on the nightstand once it was empty.

“Alright, you two ready to go back to sleep?”

“Sure,” Balthazar replied, but didn’t return to his position on the pillow. Gabriel shrugged, not really wanting to go back to sleep. He was, however, recognizing the drowsy feeling for what it was and knew he couldn’t resist it forever- his earlier struggle had proven that. Sam was, frankly, exhausted and didn’t feel like arguing with the archangel. He laid back down and, to his surprise, Gabriel crawled to snuggle up to his chest. He was evidently still shaken up from his nightmare and wriggled even closer as Sam put a hand to his back and wings. Balthazar chose the unorthodox method of curling up on Sam’s hip, shifting a bit to find a comfortable position. 

Dean woke up first the next morning, opening his eyes to see baby Cas cuddled to his chest. He looked up to see Balthazar sprawled across Sam’s hip and torso, Gabriel with his back to Sam’s chest, sucking his thumb, held still by a hand on his stomach, and all four fast asleep. Dean wanted to get up, but looking at Cas and his teddy bear, he couldn’t bring himself to. His friend rarely ever seemed so relaxed, even when he’d been acting more human, before Sam had fallen into the pit. He’d always seemed like he held the weight of the world on his shoulders and, being a Winchester, Dean knew that look well. So he simply smoothed a hand over Cas’ hair and waited.

It took nearly an hour for Sam to wake up and he was about to sit up when Dean hissed at him to stop. Half-awake, Sam listened, but understood when he turned his head and saw Balthazar on his hip. A little later, the blond woke up and as he did so, rolled off of Sam. He would have fallen off the bed if it hadn't been for Sam's quick reflexes catching him. 

"Oh, it wasn't a dream," He sighed, disappointed. 

“Nope, sorry,” Dean replied softly to avoid waking the other two.

“So what now?” Sam asked.

Dean shrugged as best he could, laying on his side. “We wait for Gabe and Cas to wake up, feed them, and try to find some way to reverse this.”

Sam nodded and silence reigned in the quiet morning. The soft breaths of the sleeping angels combined with the hum of electricity and cars just starting outside created an ambiance, a peaceful atmosphere that Balthazar could feel himself drifting off again. Until-

“The funny feeling is back,” He mumbled, squirming uncomfortably. He sat up, fidgeting, as Sam and Dean shared a glance and Sam began extracting his arm from under Gabriel.

“I’ll get him,” Dean’s voice made him pause.

“What?”

“I’ll take him, you just take Cas.” Dean carefully eased his hands under Castiel and lifted him, cradling him carefully as he took him to Sam’s bed and set him down, gently, as though he would break. The movement didn’t seem to disturb the angel save for a soft snuffling sound he made with his breath as he was put down. He held his bear a little tighter as Sam put his free hand around him, tucking him close. Dean helped Balthazar off the bed and led him to the small bathroom connected to the motel room and the two vanished inside. A few minutes later, Dean came out and grabbed the pull-ups, taking one out and leaving the box just outside the bathroom door. 

As a red-faced Balthazar was leaving, followed by Dean, Gabriel was beginning to stir. He yawned around the thumb jammed in his mouth and, as he did so, his wings stretched out, right into Sam’s face. He had to screw his face up and desperately tried not to sneeze as feathers tickled his nose. Gabriel then rolled onto his stomach as he sleepily opened his eyes and his wings settled.

“Morning, Gabriel,” Sam murmured.

“No,” Gabe grumbled and buried his face in his arms. Sam just smirked and wiggled his hand to play with the archangel’s hair, causing him to lift his head and bat the man’s hand away. “Stop."

“I’m gonna get something out for breakfast,” Dean told Sam. “What’d you grab yesterday?”

“Cereal, mostly. I think there’s a bag of those mini donut things.”

“We’ll do cereal,” Dean decided. “Balthazar, wanna come get stuff out?”

“But I don’ need it.”

“Yeah you do,” Dean turned his head to look at Balthazar, who wore a bewildered expression. “You’ll get hungry and fussy, like Cas did last night.”

“No. ‘M not Cassie.”

“Just come get something to eat,” Dean sighed, pulling out a box of cereal. “You want Lucky Charms?”

“Is that the one with marshm’os?” Gabriel asked. At Dean’s reply of confirmation, the archangel scrambled up and launched himself off of the bed, leaving Sam to desperately try to catch him before he hurt himself. Afterwards, with Gabriel bouncing over to Dean, Sam checked on Castiel, sure he’d been woken up by the movement. Surprisingly, though, he was fast asleep.

“Cassie always slept real deep,” Gabe mumbled through a mouthful of Lucky Charms after he noticed Sm’s confusion. “Could fall ‘sleep anywhere. N’omi di’n’t like it but she sucked it up cause me ‘n Luci ‘n Raph didn’t have a prob’um wif it. He was real hard to wake up, though, otherwise Mikey wouldn’t’a cared.”

“What did Balthazar think about it?”

Gabe shrugged. “He grew out of it by th’ time Balf’zar came around.”

“Wait, Balthazar’s-?”

“He’s one of the youngest angels,” Gabriel explained while Balthazar adopted a noticeably sulkier look. “Him ‘n S’mandr’el.”

“Kay, kay, stop talkin’ ‘bou’ baby me,” Balthazar grumbled as he eventually decided to go to the table. “C’n I have bowl?”

“Sure, take a seat,” Dean replied as he poured a second bowl of Luck Charms. Sam finally sat up and eased his hands under the sleeping Castiel, pulling the angel to his chest.

“Hey, time to wake up, Cas,” He murmured, nudging him carefully. “Cas.”

Castiel mumbled in his sleep and curled closer to Sam, his grip on Mr. Fuffs loosening until he dropped the bear and pulled his limbs closer to himself as he pushed his head against Sam. One stubby baby wing curled over his shoulder, the soft black down brushing against Sam’s arm.

“Castiel, come on,” Sam urged. The angel shook his head and burrowed further against the man, closing the small amount of distance between their bodies in his search for cuddles. Sam sighed and shifted Cas, moving so that he could pat his back in an attempt to wake him up. He cringed at the wet squish he felt when Cas' butt ended up in contact with his arm and stood up to take him to the bathroom. He knew Dean noticed, especially when he bent down and pulled the second pull up of the day out of the box.

Sam paused when he closed the door. How would he do this? After a few seconds’ debate, he pulled one of the motel towels down and spread it out on the floor then laid Castiel on it, undoing the onesie and pulling the used pull up off of him, groaning silently.

“Do we have wipes or something?” He asked, poking his head through the door after pulling it slightly opened. “Like baby wipes? Did we pick any up?”

“I don’t think so. Use a washcloth?”

Sam hummed. “We’ll need to grab some at some point.” He said this as he closed the door and got up to wet a washcloth, grimacing at the rough material. That wouldn’t feel good. 

Sure enough, Cas began to sleepily fuss as Sam wiped him down. “I know, I know,” He muttered. "It’s not comfortable. It’ll be over soon.” He pat the baby-fied angel dry and got the clean pull up on him, testing his onesie for wetness and, not finding any, zipped it back up.

“Okay, time for breakfast,” He groaned after rinsing the washcloth out, washing his hands, and tossing the soiled pull up in the trash. The changing of a pull up and subsequent reclothing had woken Cas up and he was yawning as Sam picked him up and tossed the towel in the shower stall. Sam brought him out and took him to the table, depositing him in a chair. He put his hands against it to keep himself steady as Dean set a third toddler bowl of Lucky Charms and milk in front of him, entrusting him with a matching spoon.

“Dean,” Sam summoned his brother’s attention with a single word and jerked his head to signify he wanted to talk. After making sure all three angels were occupied with eating, Dean went over.

“Yeah?”

“We may have to put Cas in diapers. At least for nighttime. He wet himself pretty bad and if he’s such a heavy sleeper, he might not wake up to realize he needs to go in the middle of the night.”

“You’re serious?” At Sam’s nod, Dean groaned. “I was seriously hoping not to have to deal with diapers anymore.”

“Well, we don’t know how young they really are. If their clothing is an indication of their age, we should have Cas in diapers full-time. Balthazar too, probably. I was looking on a few websites yesterday at some point, all of them said you should start to potty train kids no earlier than two years old, some said even later than that.”

“I can agree with diapers at night, but we’ll have to see how they do during the day,” Dean conceded. “I don’t want to stick them in diapers if they don’t need it. That’s even more humiliation on top of everything else.”

“I can get that,” Sam nodded. “I can go out and grab diapers and supplies for that at some point today.”

“Get cooking stuff too, then, while you’re out. Can’t exactly make them food if there’s nothing to cook in.”

“I’m gonna go write this down,” Sam muttered, finding the complementary notepad at the desk in the room and writing down  _ Diaper stuff?? _ and  _ Cookware _ . While he did so, Dean went back and poured another bowl of Lucky Charms, this time keeping it for himself.

The angels had been quiet as they ate, but as Sam finally made his way to the table, Gabriel wriggled out of his seat and intercepted him.

“I want somethin’ to do,” He whined, tugging on his pants leg.

“Did you go to the bathroom today?”

“...No, why?”

“Go do that, okay? Here, let me-” Sam trailed off as he led the somewhat- resistant Gabriel to the bathroom, wondering if this would be the new normal for him- taking angels to the bathroom cause they didn’t know enough to do it themselves.

Unfortunately, Gabriel had soiled himself, but not as bad as Cas did. Still, it was enough to make the archangel turn bright red.

“It’s okay,” Sam reassured. 

“But ‘m not supposed to… I don’t… I di’n’t wake up at all ‘n need to go.”

“That’s fine, it happens-”

“I swear! I wasn’t-” A frown crossed Gabriel’s face. “After the ni’mare I felt funny ‘n then I di’n’t.”

“I’ve heard of kids wetting themselves after nightmares,” Sam murmured as he helped Gabriel clean himself up. “I probably should have had you go then, or at least checked with you. We’re all trying to get used to this, I guess. You’re not used to actually having to sleep and eat and all of that and I’m not used to taking care of kids. Even trade off I guess.”

“Hmm. Guess so,” Gabriel muttered.

"Well, why do we get you dressed in day clothes? You're going to need to anyway."

"Sure," Gabriel shrugged, obviously not caring. Sam frowned a little as he left the bathroom to fetch pants and a shirt. As he helped Gabriel change into new clothes, he got even more concerned. Not only was the archangel extraordinarily listless, but his clothes were also bigger on him than they were when they'd gotten them yesterday. Not too much bigger, and he wouldn't be able to fit in Balthazar's, but it was still noticeable. 

Sam finished up in the bathroom and carried Gabriel out, light wings folded against his back. The moment they stepped out, some kind of shiver went through Gabriel and he straightened up, posture becoming more independent, stronger. His wings, which had been hanging somewhat limply, were stiffened and adjusted to fold better. Sam frowned at the change but didn’t choose to comment. He’d say something to Dean about it later. Instead, as he shifted to hold Gabriel better, he accidentally brushed a hand against his wing.

Gabriel stiffened and the wing pushed up against Sam’s hand as he buried his face against the man, gripping his shirt tight.

“Is that okay?” Sam whispered, noticing that, somehow, Dean, Balthazar, and Cas hadn’t noticed they’d come out yet.

“It- It’s… Not bad. It’s… Hard to explain.”

Sam moved his hand away from the light feathers and tried to ignore Gabriel’s sigh that made up his mind- no touching the wings. He plopped back down at the table and let Gabriel loose to do whatever he wanted- which was apparently to run over to the toys they’d left out last night. One of Gabriel’s was a box of different sized blocks that connected, like giant Legos. Sam couldn’t see the box but he thought they were called Trios. Whatever they were, they were bright and Gabriel seemed to like building with them, so he wasn’t arguing. Soon enough, Balthazar slipped off his seat to go play, but Dean caught his wrist.

“Did you get dressed?”

“What?”

“In day clothes. Those are your pajamas. You can play after you change.”

“That doesn’t make sense!” The little accented blond protested, peacock wings fluttering as he tried to pull out of Dean’s grip. “They’re just clothes!”

“There are clothes that you play in and clothes that you sleep in-”

“But you and Sam sleep in the clothes that you wear constantly,” Castiel put in, the tip of his head showing his confusion when his facial expression didn’t. Strangely, one part of his wings was puffing slightly.

“Yeah, well, I’m not exactly a role model,” Dean scoffed a bit. “Let’s just get you guys dressed, okay?”

He picked Balthazar up and took him over to the folded clothes, grabbing a pair of pants and a shirt before disappearing in the bathroom, the sounds of the angel’s complaints trailing after him. Before too long, he emerged and the ruffled Balthazar squirmed past him to run over to the blocks Gabriel was playing with. Sam, having already grabbed clothes for Cas, volunteered to take care of changing the smallest. Dean, having already adapted the harried look of a single father, gave him a grateful look as they passed each other.

Cas was fairly compliant and tried to help, but his little hands couldn’t work the button or zipper on the onesie and he ended up looking to Sam for help. The man obliged and helped him figure out the shirt. Pants were much easier and, after a check that he didn’t need another new pull up, Cas was able to get them on himself.

Sam released the angel to go play with his brothers and went to join Dean back at the table, finally settling in to eating the bowl of cereal he’d poured for himself. After a while of watching the three playing, getting bored, and finding something new to play with, Sam pushed himself away from the table.

“I’m gonna go out and get stuff,” He told Dean, picking up the list he’d written.

“Here, let me see that,” His brother reached out and took the list, scanning it. “Car seats?”

“We’re probably going to be driving around a bunch and it’s more for legality. I don’t want to get pulled over then have them taken away cause they weren’t in car seats.” Sam explained. “Do you have anything to add on?”

Dean took a pen and scribbled  _ pie _ before handing the list back to Sam, who rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything as he accepted the Impala’s keys and left the room, coming back a few seconds later for his laptop then leaving for real.

Dean’s attention was drawn back to the angels as he heard yelps and cries. When he looked over to them, all three were scuffling, wings flapping and making a mess.

“Hey, hey!” He pulled Gabriel and Balthazar apart, pushing Castiel out of the way. “What’s going on here?”

None of the angels answered, two struggling to attack each other while the third yelled.

“Hey!” Dean shook them and stepped between the three. “Calm your tiny, winged asses down and tell me what’s going on!”

“Gabriel said it was my fault we’re de-aged!” Castiel cried.

“ _ He _ hit me!” Gabriel pointed an accusatory finger at Balthazar, whose wings puffed.

“You said my wings were stupid!”

“Oh good God,” Dean muttered, pinching his nose bridge. If this was how it was going to be…

“Raphael said he was dead,” At Castiel’s words, his brothers’ argument immediately stopped.

“What? Who?” Dean asked, seeing how nobody else would.

“God. He said God was dead. Don’t you ‘member, Dean? You were there.”

“No! There’s no way! You’re lying!” Gabriel suddenly shouted, glaring at Cas. “Dad isn’ dead and Raphael wouldn’t say something like that!”

“But what if he’s right?” The tiny, fearful, tremulous voice somehow seemed to drown out Gabriel and Castiel. Balthazar was standing at Dean’s leg, blue eyes wide as he clung to his pants. “What if God’s dead?”

Before Dean knew it, those big blue eyes had filled with tears and there was a little blond angel tucked in his arms. “He’s not dead, not until you get proof,” He told all three of them firmly and calmly. "Now, don't worry about him. He's God, he can take care of himself."

"But he's been gone so long," Balthazar whimpered, shaking in Dean's arms. "Nobody's seen him since… Since…"

"Since I left," Gabriel was joining in, his wings shuddering and wrapping around his shoulders. 

"Hey, no. Come here," Dean sat down and pulled the other two angels to his lap. Now that they were all so little, they all fit. "You don't know If he's dead or not. I vote not and he's just been working on some other world and lost track of time, okay? I think he's just fine and you guys don't have to worry about it."

"But why hasn't he come back!" Cas protested. "If he was fine he'd come back!"

"Maybe we failed him," Gabriel whispered. "Maybe it's our fault he's gone."

"No. Absolutely not." Dean shifted to hold all three close as he could. "He's his own person, nobody can make him leave, nobody can make him come back. If he left, that's his choice and guess what? I think he's missing out."

"There's nothing he'd miss out on, he can create anything!" Balthazar whined. After a few more rounds of the angels coming up with protests and Dean countering them, all three were crying messes and Dean had no clue what to do so he just gathered some up and held them in a tight hug. 

Thankfully, kids have a limited amount of tears and, as Cas and Balthazar had had a tantrum yesterday with no water to replenish, they were cried out fairly soon. Gabriel carried on longer but eventually calmed down. 

"Here guys," Dean had eventually gotten up and filled sippy cups with water. The angels accepted them and thirstily drank while still shaking and whimpering. Balthazar finished first and dropped the cup on the floor, crawling onto Dean's lap. 

"Why don't you guys take a nap?" He suggested after noticing Castiel blinking tiredly. "It might help you feel better."

"We're angels, we don't need naps," Gabriel told him. 

"You're  _ toddler  _ angels and living with me, I'd say you do need naps." Dean retorted. "Just go with it, okay? You never know, it might help. Here-" He gently placed Balthazar down and stood up, stripping the blankets off his beds and laying them on the ground. "We'll make a blanket fort. It'll be fun and comfy."

"I never done a blanket fort 'fore," Gabriel mumbled and Cas and Balthazar shook their heads in agreement.

"That's fine, I'll teach you!" Dean helped them make it, using chairs, the side of the bed, and all the blankets and pillows from both his and Sam’s bed.

They’d put everything back later.

When they were done, he ushered the angels in and, laying on his stomach, peered in on them. “How do you like it?”

Cas was staring around. “ ‘t’s cozy,” He murmured. Balthazar nodded in agreement and Gabriel rolled his shoulders forward, wings wrapping around himself.

“That’s good,” Dean replied with a smile. “Why don’t you guys get comfy and try to take a nap? Who knows, you might like it.”

Gabriel shot Dean a dubious look but Cas and Balthazar seemed willing enough to listen and shoved a few extra blankets around before lying down.

“You too, Gabe,” 

“You know we’re not really kids, right? We don’ have the minds of toddlers, just the bodies.”

“Well, we still don’t know how badly the spell has affected you guys. We don’t know if it’s playing with your minds or not. So we’re gonna play it by ear. Tell you what-” Dean shifted a bit. “You try to fall asleep and in ten minutes, if you’re not, I won’t force you to. That sound okay?”

Gabriel huffed a bit as he thought. “Okay. I can go by that.”

“Good. Now go lay down.” Dean carefully stood up and sat at the table. Ten minutes later, he knelt down to check on the angels. He expected Gabriel to have stayed awake out of spite, but when he looked, the archangel was fast asleep, thumb in mouth and wings curled around his little brothers. Balthazar was tucked up close to him and one arm was slung around him while Castiel’s dark wing, a perfect contrast to Gabriel’s, was stretched over him. Gabriel’s wing reached just far enough to curl over Cas’ back. Balthazar had one of his wings curled over himself and was sucking on one of his few remaining flight feathers. 

Dean smiled at the scene and took a picture on his phone before backing away and turning off the lights and closing all but one of the curtains in the room. Then, for lack of anything better to do, he began cleaning his weapon as he waited for Sam to return. When he heard the rumbling engine of his Baby, he checked that the angels were still asleep, then met his brother outside.

“They’re taking a nap,” He told him. “Had a collective meltdown about some fight that started and then Cas mentioned Raphael had said something about God being dead. Balthazar really didn’t take it well so we made a blanket fort and I managed to get them to sleep.”

“Alright, well. I bought a bit more than was on the list and before you ask- yes, I did get pie.”

“Good boy, Sammy,” Dean grinned, leaving the door of the motel opened and going over to the car. In the back seat were three car seats, all in their plastic. “You’re installing these.”

“Pretty much already did,” Sam replied as he grabbed a box of diapers and a plastic bag from the trunk. “Just haven’t taken off the plastic yet.”

“Really?” Dean asked as he grabbed a few pots. “Then why are they backwards?”

“Everything I read said it was safest to have kids up till 3 to 5.” 

Dean leaned in to investigate the car seats. “Those won’t be comfortable with their wings.”

“We’ll figure out something,” Sam sighed. “Let’s just get everything in.”

Sam had ended up getting more toys which, at Dean’s look, he explained that “they’re gonna get bored. I want to give what we didn’t have.”

“Keep in mind that we have to carry this stuff with us everywhere we go.”

“I know. But still.”

Dean rolled his eyes, taking the pots and cookware out of their packaging as Sam packed a backpack.

“What’s that for?”

“I got wipes and baby powder and stuff and some woman taught me how to change a diaper while I was at the store and she recommended a diaper bag. I’m gonna put some of the pull ups in it too so we have anything we might need, wherever we are.”

“Dude-”

“I’m just trying to make sure we have all our bases covered, okay? Where are they, anyway?”

“In there,” Dean motioned to the blanket fort and Sam carefully moved the blanket flap to peer inside. He glanced back with a grin.

“That’s cute.”

“They still curled around each other?”

“Yeah. Why is Balthazar sucking on his feather?”

“No idea.”

Just a few minutes, the angels began to stir. Surprisingly, Castiel was the first to wake up and he carefully extracted himself from under Gabriel’s wing to crawl out.

“Hey, Cas,”

“Hello, Sam,” Cas replied, rubbing his eyes and reaching up for Dean to pick him up. The man made a face when the angel was settled on his leg and lifted him up to see dark wetness on the angels' backside and now the leg of Dean’s pants. At his grimace, Sam leaned over to see what was wrong.

“What?” Cas asked.

“Dean, did you have them go to the bathroom while I was gone?”

Dean paused. “No. Oops.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “I’ll get Cas cleaned up while you change.” Sam took Cas from Dean and sat the angel on a towel in the bathroom, telling him to stay there while he grabbed a new pair of pants, a diaper, a thing of wipes, and baby powder before returning to Castiel.

“Okay, so we’re doing something a bit different now,” Sam started as he closed the door and kneeled down in front of Cas. 

“Like what?”

“We’re going to see how diapers- real diapers- work out for you. I know it’s not ideal but it might be easier on you.”

“Why would it be eas’er?”

“Well, the pull ups are a training thing, to get kids used to going to the bathroom on their own. Everything I’ve read, though, says that 2 years old is the youngest age recommended to start potty training and our estimate is that you’re around like, 18 months. Part of the age thing is so that the kid’s body is ready for it and yours is so young that you’re like, not registering that you have to go or something. I’m not clear on all the details, but basically, your body isn’t ready to be in pull ups. That make sense?”

“I… think so, yes.”

“Good. Alright, let’s do this.”

With some work and figuring out how to do it, Sam eventually got Cas in a diaper. 

“How does that feel?”

Cas, who was sitting down, wiggled a bit. “It’s… Comfor’ble, I s’pose?”

“Well, if you’re not comfortable or it doesn’t feel right, tell me, okay? And make sure you let me know if you think it needs to be changed.”

“How’ll I know?”

“Um, you’ll feel wet, I think? I’m not sure, to be honest. We’ll figure it out though.”

“M’kay.”

Sam finished putting things away and another thought occurred to him.

“Do you want to put pants on or no?”

“Wha’s th’ diff’rence?”

“I don’t know, what would you prefer?”

“...Nah.”

“Alright,” After washing his hands, Sam let Cas out and the angel waddled out in the typical baby’s fashion. It was a gait they’d already gotten used to since the angels had de-aged. As Sam left with the rest of the supplies and tossed Cas’ soiled pants into the laundry bag they’d gotten yesterday, he noticed that Gabriel and Balthazar had woken up.

“Do they need to be changed too, while I’m at it?”

“Probably.”

“What d’you mean changed?” Gabe asked. “‘N why’s Cassie in a diaper?”

“We’re trying something new and Cas was up first. Balthazar, why don’t we deal with you first, yeah?”

“No. Deal wi’ what?”

“Does your butt feel wet?” Dean cut in. Balthazar hesitated.

“Uh-huh.”

“There you go,” Dean cast a smug look at Sam, getting a bitchface in return as he started getting stuff together. “You’re getting changed.”

Balthazar was carried, protestingly, into the bathroom, where Sam put him in a diaper -”But I don’t need one!” “Just try it. If I’m wrong, we’ll go back to pull ups. Those are basically diapers too.”- and he opted to put pants on. Gabriel got a new pull up because Sam didn’t feel like trying to struggle with him about it too. While Sam was working on dealing with the angels, Dean set to making lunch with Cas balanced on his hip as the angel wanted to watch but was too little to otherwise.

“Alright, mac n cheese and hot dogs!” Dean called as he spooned the mixture onto toddler dishes. “Come get it.” 

Balthazar and Gabriel left their play with the blocks as Dean sat with Cas on his lap. After seeing Balthazar struggle to reach his dish, Sam swooped in and tucked the angel to sit on his own lap. After protesting, which by now wasn’t anything new, he settled down and started eating. After pushing in the chair, Gabriel didn’t seem to have any problem reaching it if he was standing, so they didn’t bother with trying to help him out.

Once the angels finished eating, they were released for more play, which seemed to be the only thing they did. However, seeing as there was nobody around to judge, Sam and Dean didn’t care and it gave them time to talk and decide their next steps, which ended up being that they would stay at the motel a few more days, get used to this, then find their next place.

One diaper change and a few hours later came dinner, with the angels now watching some movie about birds, Dean thought it was called Rio. Either way, he didn’t care, as it kept them quiet. Similarly to yesterday, the movie ended with Cas and Balthazar nearly asleep. Sam got them changed quickly into pajamas and fresh diapers and tucked into bed. Gabriel, again, resisted falling asleep and Dean took him out to walk around. The archangel confided that he’d had a nightmare and didn’t want another tonight and Dean promised that he and Sam would be there to protect him, which somehow seemed to put the toddler at ease. They returned to find Sam laying on his back, Balthazar sprawled over his chest, and Cas curled up on one of his arms. Dean got Gabriel changed into pajamas and the archangel opted to sleep with Sam, leaving Dean’s bed empty. As the last of the three got settled on his chosen spot of lying on Sam’s stomach, Dean turned off the lights, laughing at his brother’s predicament.

“Better hope you don’t wake up in the middle of the night,” He teased.

“Shut up,” Sam retorted, laughing quietly. “At least they’re asleep.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not my best chapter but... Oh well, I guess.
> 
> Thoughts? Please comment!
> 
> Updates are changing! Watch for an update from Sam's Angels- all will be explained there!


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